Main  Lib, 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


B1C  LOGY 


g 

Accession  ............  9.16-59  ......     cl(US 


u 


. — c 

c 


SOME   CREATURES   OF   THE   SEA. 


WESTERN  SERIES  OF  READERS. — VOL.  VIII 


SHELLS   AND    SEA- LIFE 


BY 
JOSIAH    KEEP,   A.M. 

PROFESSOR  OF  NATURAL  SCIENCE,   MILLS  COLLEGE 


((   UNIVERSITY  ) 


SAN 

THE   WHITAKER  AND  BAY  COMPANY 
(INCORPORATED) 

1901 


BIOLOGY 

LIBRARY 

G 


COPYRIGHT,  1901, 

BY 
JOSIAH  KEEP. 


PREFACE. 

IT  is  well  for  young  people  to  get  acquainted  with  the  crea- 
tures which  are  living  all  around  them.  Birds  and  bees  and 
squirrels  are  near  neighbors  to  a  great  many  of  us,  and  they 
Avill  prove  good  neighbors  or  bad  neighbors,  to  a  large  degree, 
in  accordance  with  our  treatment  of  them.  The  same  is  true 
of  many  creatures  that  are  not  so  well  known  as  birds  and  bees. 
It  may  be  necessary,  at  times,  to  restrict  their  numbers,  and 
always  to  define  the  limits  which  they  must  not  pass ;  and  yet, 
how  many  people  in  this  world  live  on  bad  terms  with  their 
neighbors,  both  brute  and  human,  because  they  do  not  take 
the  trouble  to  become  acquainted  with  their  good  qualities. 

A  warm,  generous  heart  is  a  source  of  pleasure  which  can- 
not be  overestimated ;  and  a  narrow,  cruel  spirit  is  a  source  of 
untold  grief,  not  only  to  its  possessor,  but  also  to  those  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact.  The  true  teacher  has  a  great 
mission.  It  is  not  merely  to  impart  knowledge;  far  higher 
than  that,  it  is  to  develop  life,  —  life  that  is  pure,  truthful, 
honest,  loving,  and  happy.  For  such  a  great  work  the  teacher 
needs  all  possible  aids. 

We  seldom  love  that  of  which  we  have  but  slight  knowledge. 
It  is  the  aim  of  this  book  to  assist  the  teacher  in  developing 
the  interest  of  the  pupils  in  a  class  of  animals  which  is  not 
so  commonly  studied  or  so  well  known  as  some  other  classes. 
If  the  interest  can  be  awakened,  good  results  are  pretty  sure 
to  follow. 

The  author's  book  on  WEST  COAST  SHELLS  has  been  consid- 
erably circulated  and  has  been  freely  consulted  by  some  of 
our  young  people.  It  cannot,  however,  be  extensively  used  in 
the  classroom,  where  a  smaller  and  cheaper  book  would  be 

8 

91659 


4  PREFACE. 

appropriate.  It  is  the  author's  hope  that  this  little  volume 
may  give  to  many  children  a  better  knowledge  of  the  life  of 
mollusks  than  they  would  be  apt  to  obtain  otherwise,  and 
that  even  dead  and  dry  shells  may  awaken  trains  of  thought, 
and  restore,  as  it  were,  the  life  of  the  creatures  which  once 
inhabited  them. 

The  mollusks  which  live  on  the  land  and  in  fresh  water 
have  been  mentioned,  since  very  many  children  will  have  a 
chance  to  study  these,  who  can  seldom  or  never  visit  the  sea- 
shore. The  later  chapters  of  the  book  are  devoted  largely  to 
the  other  forms  of  sea-life  which  a  visitor  to  the  beach  would 
be  most  likely  to  meet.  It  is  hoped  that  this  may  make  the 
book  useful,  in  some  degree,  as  a  kind  of  guide  to  those  who 
are  not  familiar  with  the  abundant  forms  of  life,  some  of 
which  they  will  be  sure  to  encounter. 

But  few  Latin  names  are  given  in  the  text,  though  they  are 
not  to  be  feared,  and  children  may  easily  become  accustomed 
to  them;  they  seem,  however,  more  appropriate  in  the  List 
of  Figures,  which  should  be  freely  consulted.  A  few  simple 
directions  concerning  the  collection  and  preservation  of  speci- 
mens have  been  added,  in  the  belief  that  they  might  some- 
times prove  useful. 

Acknowledgments  are  especially  due  to  Miss  LAURA  M. 
MELLEN  for  drawings  of  shells,  and  to  Miss  ALICE  B.  TABOR 
for  the  initial  letters  and  most  of  the  other  drawings  in  the 
book;  also  to  MESSRS.  J.  K.  OLIVER  and  C.  BARLOW  for  pho- 
tographs of  marine  scenery. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  hoped  that  this  volume  may  take  a 
prominent  place  in  that  instructive  series  of  readers  which 
is  giving  to  the  children  of  this  Coast  such  choice  and  fresh 
themes. 

JOSIAH  KEEP. 

MILLS  COLLEGE,  CALIFORNIA,  February  6, 1901. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

THE  CREATURES  OF  THE  SEA 7 

A  GROUP  OF  ROCK-LOVERS 16 

THE  SEA.     (Poem) 25 

EASTERN  OYSTERS 27 

THE  SOFT-SHELLED  CLAM 37 

SNAILS  AND  SLUGS 43 

ABALONES,  OR  SEA-EARS 50 

THE  STORY  OF  A  PECTEX 62 

MUSSELS 71 

THE  SEA-SHELL'S  ANSWER.     (Poem} 76 

FRESH-WATER  MOLLUSKS 78 

A  GROUP  OF  SAND-DWELLERS 86 

A  WALK  ALONG  THE  SHORE 95 

A  FEW  MORE  MOLLUSKS 103 

OTHER  CREATURES  WHICH  LIVE  IN  THE  SEA 112 

.SOME  CREEPING  THINGS       119 

ANOTHER  SEASIDE  TALK 129 

SEAWORMS,  SEAWEEDS,  AND  OTHER  SEA-THINGS      ....  137 

THE  CRABS'  TEA-PARTY.     (Poem) 146 

SOME  OTHER  LITTLE  SEA-CREATURES •     .     .  151 

How  SEA-BIRDS  KEEP  HOUSE .  158 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  SEA-BIRD.     (Poem)  ........  166 

SEALS  AND  SEA-LIONS .  169 

A  WATER-TELESCOPE 175 

THE  HARVEST  OF  THE  SEA 183 

How  TO  COLLECT  AND  PRESERVE  SPECIMENS 194 

LIST  OF  FIGURES     ...............  197 

INDEX .          ...  200 

5 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

SHELLS  AND  SEA-LIFE Frontispiece. 

SUMMER  SCENE  BY  THE  SEASIDE 10 

A  SCENE  ON  THE  COAST  OF  CALIFORNIA 24 

THE  GOLDEN  GATE 29 

A  CHINESE  SHELL-STAND  NEAR  CYPRESS  POIXT      ....     58 

A  NESTING  COLONY  OF  CORMORANTS .114 

SEA-URCHIN  SHELLS  PREPARED  FOR  MARKET 122 

SOUTH  FARALLONE  ISLAND 159 

THE  FARALLONE  MULE 160 

BABY  GULL  IN  NEST 161 

SUGAR-LOAF  ROCK,  FARALLOXE  ISLANDS 163 

BIRD  ROCKS 165 

SEA-LIONS  AT  HOME    .     . 168 

A  GOOD  CATCH  OF  FISH 188 

6 


THE    CREATURES   OF   THE   SEA. 

IVERY  boy  or  girl  who  goes  to  school, 
and  is  able  to  read  this  book,  knows 
that  California  is  bounded  on  the 
?b  west   by  the  Pacific  Ocean.      And 
perhaps  more  than  half  of  all  the 

boys  and  girls  who  live  in  the  Pacific  states,  and 

have  reached  the  age  of  thirteen  years,  have  seen 

with  their  own   eyes  at  least  a  small  portion  of 

that  great   body  of    salt  water  which   rolls   and 

splashes  against  our  Western  shore. 

A   great  many    have  stood  on  the  beach  and 

watched  the  long  lines  of  breakers  come  tumbling 

in  as  if  they  were  anxious 

to  drown   everybody  who 

is  looking  at  them.     Oth- 
ers have  never  been  to  the 

open  beach,  but  have  seen 

the  more  quiet  waters  of  a 

bay    or    inlet    connecting 

with  the  ocean.     And  still 

others  have  spent  all  their 

short  lifetime  on  the  moun- 


REFEKEXCE   TOPICS. 
The  breakers. 
The  tides. 
The  coast-Jine. 
Deep-sea  creatures. 
A  dredge. 
Lobster-catching. 
Seaside  resorts. 
Coral  islands. 
The  Greek  language. 
Geology. 


8  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

tains  or  in  the  valleys,  away  from  the  salt  water, 
and  have  never  yet  had  a  chance  to  visit  the 
coast. 

I  hope  they  may,  one  of  these  days,  and  I  feel 
pretty  sure  that  they  will.  I  had  never  seen  the 
ocean  when  I  was  thirteen,  but  since  I  became  a 
man  I  have  seen  it  often,  and  have  learned  to  love 
it  very  much. 

Suppose  you  try  to  find  out  what  per  cent  of 
the  members  of  your  class  have  seen  the  broad 
ocean,  what  per  cent  have  seen  only  a  bay,  and 
what  per  cent  have  never  seen  either.  That  will 
be  a  good  practical  problem  in  percentage.  Of 
course,  the  sum  of  the  three  answers  should  equal 
one  hundred,  no  matter  what  the  size  of  the  class 
may  be. 

The  line  where  the  land  and  the  ocean  meet  is 
a  place  where  a  great  many  creatures  live.  It  is 
a  pretty  broad  line  in  some  places,  for  the  tides 
rise  and  fall  twice  a  day,  and  the  shore  at  high 
tide  may  lie  half  a  mile  from  the  low  tide-line. 

And  then  beyond  this  line  there  is  a  space 
where  the  water  is  not  very  deep,  though  the  bot- 
tom is  always  covered,  and  this  region  of  shallow 
water  is  one  which  abounds  in  living  things,  both 
animal  and  vegetable.  Then  comes  the  deep  sea, 
where  living  things  are  less  common.  One  reason 


THE    CREATURES    OF    THE    SEA.  9 

is,  that  it  affords  no  resting-place  for  creatures 
that  do  not  like  to  be  swimming  about  contin- 
ually, while  another  reason  is,  that  there  is  a  lack 
of  food  in  very  deep  water. 

It  is  true  that  some  strange  creatures  are  occa- 
sionally brought  up  from  great  depths,  but  the 
cold,  black  abyss  of  the  deep  sea  will  probably 
always  remain  a  place  of  mystery,  while  the  shal- 
low rim  of  the  ocean  will  be  better  and  better 
known  as  the  years  go  by  and  new  explorations 
are  made.  Perhaps  some  of  you  may  help  make 
them. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  the  whole  shore-line  of 
California,  Oregon,  and  Washington  is  the  home 
of  countless  animals.  And  by  shore-line  we  will 
include  all  that  space  which  reaches  from  the 
spray-splashed  rocks  on  the  land  side,  out  to 
water  which  is  too  deep  to  be  readily  explored  by 
the  dredge. 

All  sorts  of  creatures  live  in  this  sea-coast  re- 
gion. First,  there  are  the  fishes  in  abundance, 
ranging  in  size  from  the  sharks  that  are  as  long 
as  a  good-sized  house,  down  to  the  smallest  rock- 
fishes  that  have  just  been  hatched  from  the  egg. 

Occasionally  a  whale  comes  blowing  around,  or 
some  smaller  creatures  of  the  same  class,  like  the 
grampus  and  the  porpoise.  There  are  seals,  with 


THE    CREATURES    OF    THE    SEA.  11 

finny  hands  and  fat  sides,  and  round  heads  with 
bright  eyes,  which  are  ever  looking  out  for  fish  for 
their  Friday  dinners  —  and  every  day  is  Friday  to 
the  seal. 

And  we  must  not  forget  the  birds,  for  there  are 
thousands  of  them,  —  ducks  and  gulls,  and  divers 
and  murres,  shags  and  sand-pipers,  and  herons 
and  pelicans;  birds  that  dive,  birds  that  swim,  and 
birds  that  spend  most  of  their  time  on  the  wing. 
0  yes,  the  sea-coast  is  a  wonderful  place  for  birds, 
for  the  waves  give  them  food  in  abundance. 

And  down  in  the  water  and  along  the  beach 
are  all  kinds  of  funny  creatures,  some  with  many 
legs  and  some  without  any.  There  are  crabs  and 
lobsters,  shrimps  and  sand-fleas,  barnacles  and 
starfishes;  sea-urchins  that  cannot  run,  and  sea- 
cucumbers  that  are  not  good  for  pickles;  sea- 
worms  and  sea-slugs  and  sea-pens  and  sea-hares 
and  sea-anemones,  and  sea-almost-everything,  ex- 
cept sea-boys  and  sea-girls,  and  in  summer  they 
are  there  too. 

Besides  all  these  there  are  hydroids  and  jelly- 
fishes,  and  corals  and  sponges,  and  squids  and  cut- 
tles, and  limpets  and  clams,  and  a  hundred  kinds 
of  creeping  snails.  It  would  take  you  a  lifetime  to 
learn  all  that  is  now  known  about  these  creatures, 
and  then  there  would  be  plenty  left  for  the  next 


12  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

generation  to  discover  and  investigate.  Two 
things  seem  sure:  that  they  are  all  having  what  is 
to  them  a  happy  existence,  and  that  they  are  all 
living  in  the  places  which  they  seem  best  fitted  to 
inhabit. 

Out  of  all  this  throng  of  life  we  may  each  select 
one  particular  kind,  and  seek  to  know  them  more 
thoroughly  than  we  do  the  rest.  I  have  selected 
the  Mollusks,  because  they  have  beautiful  shells 
and  interesting  habits,  and  because  they  may  be 
found  in  so  many  and  so  diverse  situations.  Be- 
sides, there  are  a  great  many  mollusks  which  do 
not  now  live  in  the  ocean,  though  perhaps  their 
remote  ancestors  did,  away  back  in  the  dim  past. 

But  at  this  time  we  have  land  mollusks  and 
fresh-water  mollusks  in  abundance,  besides  the 
many  marine  forms.  So  it  is  not  necessary  for 
you  to  go  to  the  seaside  to  gather  living  mollusks, 
and  if  you  happen  to  live  off  in  the  valleys  or  in 
the  mountains,  you  will  be  pretty  sure  to  find 
some  of  them,  and  to  have  a  chance  to  study  their 
forms  and  their  habits. 

There  are  three  classes  of  mollusks  which  live 
along  the  sea-shore,  and  each  of  these  classes  is 
further  divided  into  many  genera  and  species.  The 
first  class  includes  all  those  creatures  which  resem- 
ble the  squid  and  the  cuttle-fish.  They  have  a 


THE    CREATURES    OF    THE    SEA.  13 

prominent  head,  with  big,  staring  eyes,  and  a  beak 
like  a  parrot's,  which  is  surrounded  by  a  circle  of 
arms  or  tentacles,  set  with  many  hooks  or  suckers. 
While  they  sometimes  crawl  on  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  most  of  them  can  swim  freely,  if  they  wish  to, 
and  they  have  a  comical  habit  of  pouring  out  a 
quantity  of  black  ink  to  darken  the  water  when 
they  wish  to  hide  or  escape  from  some  enemy. 
They  are  called  Ceph-al-o-pods,  from  two  Greek 
words  meaning  head  and  foot,  because  they  some- 
times use  the  arms  on.  their  heads  as  organs  for 
walking. 

The  second  class  have  very  small  eyes  set  on 
little  stalks,  and  their  mouths  have  neither  beaks 
nor  suckers,  but  a  curious  tongue  clothed  with 
very  numerous  little  hooked  teeth.  They  cannot 
swim,  but  they  lie  flat  on  the  rocks,  and  creep 
along  very  slowly  by  means  of  little  muscles  in  a 
disk  or  foot  which  forms  the  lower  part  of  the 
body.  When  they  stop  moving  they  can  hold  on 
like  a  sucker,  and  so  they  can  resist  the  force  of 
the  waves. 

They  are  called  Gas-ter-o-pods,  because  they 
creep,  as  it  were,  upon  their  stomachs.  All  the 
snails  belong  to  this  class.  Most  of  the  Gastero- 
pods  are  protected  by  a  single  shell,  usually  spiral 
in  shape,  though  there  are  plenty  of  slugs,  both 


14  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

on  the  land  and  in  the  sea,  that  have  no  shells 
whatsoever. 

The  third  class  of  mollusks  have  no  heads  at  all, 
though  they  all  have  mouths  and  lips,  and  a  few 
of  them  have  eyes  also.  They  live  within  a  pair 
of  shells,  which  they  can  open  or  close  at  will. 
Most  of  them  dig  burrows  with  a  fleshy  foot 
shaped  like  a  hatchet,  and  hence  they  are  called 
Pel-e-cy-pods,  meaning  hatchet-footed  creatures. 

Besides  these  three  classes  there  are  certain 
other  mollusks  which  are  seldom  seen  in  these 
times,  though  long  before  man  lived  on  the  earth 
they  were  very  numerous.  We  need  not  think  of 
them  now,  but  when  you  study  geology  you  will 
learn  a  great  deal  about  them,  for  very  many  of 
their  shells  are  found  preserved  in  the  rocks. 

As  for  the  three  long  Greek  names,  they  are  all 
very  proper  to  know,  but  for  our  purposes  suppose 
we  call  the  three  classes  Swimmers,  Creepers,  and 
Bivalves;  for  the  Cephalopods  swim,  the  Gastero- 
pods  creep,  and  the  Pelecypods  have  double  shells. 

Now,  leaving  the  Swimmers  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves in  the  ocean  waves,  we  may  group  all  of  the 
Creepers  and  Bivalves  into  three  great  divisions, 
according  to  their  favorite  places  of  habitation. 
We  will  name  them  Rock-lovers,  Sand-dwellers, 
and  Mudsills. 


THE    CREATURES    OF    THE    SEA.  15 

Some  may  think  that  the  name  "mudsill"  is  a 
term  of  reproach.  Well,  it  is  sometimes  used  so, 
in  reference  to  men;  for  no  man  likes  to  be  com- 
pared to  a  log  sunk  in  the  mud;  but  with  mollusks 
it  is  different.  They  are  fitted  for  the  mud,  they 
get  their  food  there,  and  they  have  never  been 
known  to  complain  of  their  location,  or  to  be 
ashamed  of  their  lowly  home. 


BLACKBOARD     WORDS. 

barnacles  (bar'na-klz),  hydroids  (hfdroids),  mollusk 
(mol'lusk),  cephalopod  (sefal-o-pod),  gasteropod  (gas'ter- 
o-pod),  pelecypod  (pel'i-si-pod),  particular  (par-tik'u-lar), 
tentacles  (ten'ta-klz),  prominent  (prom'i-nent),  genera 
(jen'e-ra),  the  plural  of  genus  (je'nus) ;  species  (spe'shez), 
abyss  (a-bis'). 


A   GROUP    OF    ROCK-LOVERS. 


and 


xyou  ever  go  camping  in  the  sum- 
mer ?  Did  you  and  your 
friends  ever  get  tired  of  liv- 
ing in  one  place  all  the  year, 
\£  and  decide  to  take  a  tent  and 
go  out  to  some  shady  spot 
have  fun  and  fresh  air  and 
freedom  for  a  little  while?  I  hope 
so,  for  there  is  nothing  quite  so  good  as  a  few 
days  of  tent  life  to  brighten  up  all  the  rest  of  the 
year. 

Perhaps  your  tent  was  near  a  mountain  stream, 
where  you  could  watch  the  speckled  trout  in  the 
deep  holes;  perhaps  it  was 
in  the  woods,  where  there 
were  great  trees  watching 
over  you,  that  had  been 
growing  for  centuries;  per- 
haps it  was  by  the  sea- 
shore, where  you  could  lie 
awake  at  night  and  hear 
the  waves  pounding  away 


REFERENCE    TOPICS. 

Summer  camping. 
Granite  rocks. 
"Sweet  home." 
Color  protection. 
Volcanoes. 
Tide  limits. 
The  horned  owl. 
Air  suction. 


16 


A    GROUP    OF    ROCK-LOVERS.  17 

on  the  granite  rocks  or  breaking  into  foam  on  the 
sandy  beach;  perhaps  it  was  in  a  field,  or  even  in 
a  back  yard;  but  anywhere  under  a  tent  there  is 
a  charm  which  you  cannot  get  anywhere  else. 

Now,  there  is  a  whole  group  of  mollusks  that 
live  in  tents  all  their  lives,  and  they  always  pitch 
their  tents  on  the  rocks.  And  each  tent  is  just 
big  enough  for  one  camper  to  live  in;  and  if  the 
camper  grows,  why,  he  builds  on  to  the  edge  of  his 
tent,  and  keeps  it  just  big  enough  to  cover  him 
whenever  he  settles  down  for  a  good  night's  rest. 

When  you  went  camping  you  set  up  poles,  and 
spread  the  tent-cloth  over  them,  and  fastened  it 
all  down  with  ropes  and  pins.  But  our  little  mol- 
lusk  campers  make  their  tents  of  shell,  and  they 
are  so  stiff  and  firm  that  there  is  no  need  of  poles 
and  ropes  to  keep  them  spread. 

You  used  to  come  out  of  your  tent  in  the  morn- 
ing and  rush  down  to  the  brook  to  wash  your 
hands  and  face.  Our  little  campers  get  up  too, 
but  they  always  carry  their  tents  with  them,  on 
their  backs;  and  as  for  washing  their  faces,  they 
never  need  to  be  troubled  with  that  duty,  for  they 
live  in  the  water  most  of  their  lives,  and  they  get 
their  faces  washed  with  clear,  cold  water,  whether 
they  wish  it  or  not. 

These   little   campers    are  called    limpets,  and 

W.S.R.  VOL.  8—2 


18  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

their  coverings  are  sometimes  called  saucer-shells; 
for  some  of  their  empty  tents,  when  turned  over, 
might  be  used  for  little  shallow  dishes,  like  very 
small  saucers.  On  the  coast  of  Mexico  there  are 
some  that  are  large  enough  for  mush-bowls,  but 
they  do  not  grow  so  large  in  our  part  of  the 
ocean. 

A  few  of  the  tents  have  a  kind  of  chimney-hole 
at  the  top,  and  the  creature  that  lives  in  such  a 
shell  is  called  a  keyhole  limpet.  Although  the 
opening  looks  like  a  keyhole,  there  is  no  lock  con- 
nected with  it,  but  only  a  fold  of  the  animal's 
mantle,  and  it  really  serves  as  a  kind  of  chimney 
or  ventilating-flue  for  keeping  the  tent  sweet  and 
clean.  In  those  limpets  which  have  no  chimney 
to  the  shell,  all  the  circulation  of  water  must  be 
carried  on  under  the  raised  edges  of  the  tent. 

Most  of  these  little  campers  have  a  pleasant 
habit  of  pitching  their  tents  in  the  same  spot 
every  night,  however  much  they  may  have  wan- 
dered during  the  day.  Home  is  home,  even  if  it 
is  only  a  little  flat  spot  on  the  side  of  a  huge  cliff. 
And  so  I  trust  you  have  found,  whenever  you 
have  been  camping,  that  the  best  part  of  it  all  was 
the  coming  home  again. 

Of  course  our  limpets  get  hungry  and  must 
search  for  their  food,  but,  fortunately,  it  consists 


A    GROUP    OF    ROCK-LOVERS.  19 

chiefly  of  the  soft  vegetable  matter  that  is  found 
so  abundantly  on  the  sides  of  the  rocks  which  fur- 
nish them  with  a  camping-ground.  With  their 
little  tongues  they  can  easily  rasp  off  food  enough 
to  satisfy  their  appetites,  after  which  they  have 
plenty  of  time  for  rest  and  meditation. 

Some  limpets  camp  on  the  stems  of  the  big 
seaweeds,  and  have  a  jolly  time  rocking  back  and 
forth  as  the  weeds  are  swayed  and  tossed  by  the 
waves.  But  most  of  them  prefer  a  solid  founda- 
tion, especially  selecting  those  rocks  which  are  left 
bare  a  part  of  the  day,  when  the  tide  is  low. 

A  few,  like  the  one  in  the  picture  (Figure  1), 
creep  up  so  high  that  they  are 
seldom  covered  with  water,  and 
seem  to  prefer  the  occasional 
splashing  of  the  spray  to  a  real 
all-over  bath.  Perhaps  you  have 
known  children  who  were  in- 

Figure  1. 

clined  to  sympathize  with  them. 

The  color  of  this  little  limpet's  tent  is  a  mottled 
gray,  and  as  he  generally  lives  on  granite  rocks,  it 
is  sometimes  difficult  to  distinguish  his  shell  from 
a  little  knob  of  rock.  You  will  be  surprised  to 
notice  how  many  creatures  in  this  world  are  pro- 
tected in  some  degree  by  the  likeness  of  their 
covering  to  their  surroundings. 


20         WESTERN  SERIES  OF  READERS. 

There  are  brown  shells  on  brown  seaweeds, 
gray  shells  on  gray  rocks,  dust-colored  squirrels 
and  rabbits  in  dusty  fields,  bright-winged  butter- 
flies on  brilliant  flowers,  green  caterpillars  on 
green  leaves,  and  funny  little  owls  about  the  color 
of  twilight. 

There  are  three  or  four  fine  keyhole  limpets  to 
be   found    on    our    coast.      The 
most  common  one  (Figure  2)  is 
shaped  like  a  mountain  with  a 
k  crater  at  the  top.    You  often  find 
Figure  2.  the  white  shells  with  red  stripes 

running  down  the  sides,  looking  for  all  the  world 
like  streams  of  red-hot  lava.  And  so  this  limpet 
is  called  \^issurella  volcano,  or)the  Volcano  shell. 

^Figure  3  is  a  good  picture  of  the  Rough  Keyhole 
Limpet,  while  Figure  4  is  a  rather  small  picture  of 
a  very  pretty  white 
shell  which  sometimes 
grows  as  large  as  your 
hand,  and  is  known  as<| 
the  Giant  Keyhole 
Limpet.  Figure  5  rep- 
resents the  Spotted 
Keyhole  Limpet,which 

is  no  bigger  than  the  nail  of  your  smallest  finger. 
Its  Latin  name,  however,  is  as  long  as  your  longest 


A    GROUP    OF    ROCK-LOVERS.  21 

finger,   so    I    will 

not  give  it  here, 

but    will     advise 

those  of  you  who! 

wish  to  look  it  upf 

to  study  the  List 

of  Figures  at  the 

end  of  this  book, 

or  to  consult  the  Figure  4. 

books  on  shells  in  your  school  library^ 

The  shell  is  too  small  to  be  of  much  use  as  a 
tent  to  the  little  creature  that  carries  it,  since  it 
covers  only  a  small  portion  of  his  back.  There 
^^^  are  a  few  other  kinds,  not  commonly  found, 
^SfiP  and  for  a  description  of  these  I  would  also 
Figure  5.  refer  you  to  the  books  on  shellsj 

Of  the  common  limpets,  —  those  that  have  no 
chimney-holes,  —  there  are  so  many  kinds  that  it 
is  sometimes  very  difficult  to  be  sure  of  the  right 
name.  \Figures  1  and  6  show  the  shape  of  the 
Ribbed  Limpet,  which  is  gray  in  color  and  lives 
on  the  highest  cliffs.  Most  of 
the  specimens  of  it  that  you  find 
will  be  smaller  than  the  picturej  < 

On  the  rocks  between  the  tide          Figure  6' 
limits,  you  may  find  a  number  of  different  kinds; 
(some  like  Figure  7, —  the  Plate  Limpet,  —  others 


22 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


Figure  8. 


like  Figure  8, —  the  Shield  Limpet,  —  and  still 
others  like  Figure  9,  in  which  the  point  of  the 
shell  is  almost  at  one  end, 
like  the  nose  of  a  mask,  and 
it  is  therefore  called  the 
Figure?.  Mask  Limpet.^) 

All  of  these  are  of  a  dark  color  on  the  outside 
and  lighter  within,  but  there  is  one  pretty  little 
tent,  that  you  will  be 
very  likely  to  find,  that 
is  pure  white  all  over. 
It  is  a  round  shell,  (like 
Figure  10,  jand  looks 
like  a  little  snowclad 
peak  of  a  mountain.  It  is  often  called  the  White 
Capj^and  its  Latin  name  is  Acmxa  mitraj 

Inside  the  shells  of  all  the  lim- 
pets there  are  sometimes  curious 
markings,    which    show    where 
Figure  9.  fae  fleshfpf  the  mollusl^  was  at- 

tached to  the  hard  covering.  Sometimes  these 
markings  greatly  resemble  the  outline  of  a  horned 
owl,  fas  is  shown  in  figure  HfdF- 
Great  Owl  Shelp^It  is  the 
largest  of  all  of  our  limpets,  arid 
is  frequently  found  as  big  as  the* 
bowl  of  a  kitchen  spoony 


Figure  10. 


A    GROUP    OF    ROCK-LOVERS. 


23 


Here  we  must  leave  our 
great  family  of  campers 
that  carry  their  tents 
with  them.  They  have 
many  enemies,  as  the 
crabs  and  starfishes,  and 
to  guard  against  being 
eaten  alive  they  hold  on 
to  the  rock  very  firmly 
with  their  broad  foot, 
and  pull  down  their 
strong  shelly  tent,  and  Figure  n. 

thus  they  live  safely,  because  they  are  well  pro- 
tected. 


BLACKBOARD     WORDS. 

centuries  (sen'tu-riz),  ventilating  (veii'ti-lat-ing),  espe- 
cially (es-pesh'al-ly),  sympathize  (sim'pa-thiz),  distinguish 
(dis-tm'guish),  Fissurella  (fis-shu-rel'la),  specimens  (spes'- 
i-menz),  fortunately  (for'tu-nat-ly). 


o. 


THE    SEA. 
I. 

THE  broad  blue  sea, 
r  9  It  has  charms  for  me  ; 
For  I  love  to  stand 
On  its  rim  of  sand, 

And  look  far  off  where  its  great  waves  rise, 
As  if  they  were  mounting  up  into  the  skies  ; 
Then  see  them  break  into  foamy  spray, 
Leaving  patches  of  snow  as  they  melt  away 

II. 

O,  the  broad  blue  sea, 

It  has  charms  for  me ; 

For  I  love  to  hear 

Its  music  so  clear, 

When  the  thundering  bass  of  its  breakers  roars, 
As  its  billows  dash  on  the  rock-bound  shores, 
And  the  wavelets  answer  with  melody  sweet, 
As  they  die  on  the  sands  that  lie  at  my  feet. 

III. 

O,  the  broad  blue  sea, 
It  has  charms  for  me  ; 
For  I  love  to  explore 
The  caves  of  its  shore, 

To  gather  its  mosses  and  pebbles  and  shells, 
To  note  the  rich  bower  where  the  fair  sea-nymph  dwells ; 
While  from  each  living  creature  there  rises  a  call 
To  praise  the  great  Giver  of  life  unto  all. 

25 


26  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

IV. 

O,  the  broad  blue  sea, 
It  has  charms  for  me ; 
For  I  love  to  dream 
Of  islands  that  seem 

Like  beautiful  regions  far  out  in  the  west, 
Where  frosts  never  blight,  and  all  nature  is  blest ; 
Till  I  long  to  set  sail,  with  the  red  setting  sun, 
And  find  on  their  shores  a  new  life  begun. 

V. 

O,  the  broad  blue  sea, 
It  has  charms  for  me ; 
For  I  love  to  believe 
That  I  yet  shall  perceive 
New  sources  of  power  revealed  by  its  waves, 
New  lessons  of  wisdom  and  life  in  its  caves  ; 

And  the  voice  of  the  sea  shall  grow  sweeter  each  day, 
Till  the  voices  of  earth  shall  all  fade  away. 


EASTERN  OYSTERS. 


I.    How  THEIR  CALIFORNIA  HOME  WAS  PREPARED. 

\HE  water  of  San  Francisco  Bay  is 
quite  deep  in  the  central  portions, 
but  along  the  edges  there  are 
extensive  mud-flats.    Parts  of 

1  these  flats  are  exposed  to  the 

J  jpjl  1  air  as  often  as  the  tide  falls 
even  a  moderate  amount;  and 
whenever  there  is  an  unusu- 
ally low  tide,  hundreds  of 

acres  of  the  dark,  muddy  surface  may  be  seen  by 

any  one  who  walks  along 

the  shore. 

The  material  from  which 

these  mud-flats  have  been 

constructed     has     largely 

been  brought  down  from 

central  California  by  those 

muddy  rivers,  the  Sacra- 
mento and  the  San Joaquin. 

These,  in  their  turn,  have 

received    their  load    from 

27 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Sail  Francisco  Kay. 
Rivers  of  California. 
Placer-mining. 
Results  of  mining:. 
Crossing  the  bar. 
Puget  Sound. 
Transcontinental 

roads. 

Canned  oysters. 
Destructive  fishes. 
Cattle-raising. 


rail- 


28  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

three  sources:  first,  from  the  muddy  rills  which 
in  times  of  rain  run  down  from  the  fields  which 
lie  along  the  river  banks ;  second,  from  brooks 
and  creeks  extending  far  inland,  which  in  the 
rainy  season  receive  the  washings  of  the  country 
through  which  they  flow;  and  third,  from  the  gold 
mines  in  the  mountains. 

Formerly,  many  gold  mines  were  worked  by 
turning  great  streams  of  water  from  huge  hose- 
pipes upon  banks  of  gravel,  in  which  were  small 
pieces  of  the  precious  metal.  The  water  and 
gravel  and  gold  would  then  all  rush  together 
down  a  long  trough,  or  flume,  in  the  bottom  of 
which  were  contrivances  to  catch  the  gold. 

The  stones  and  the  heavier  parts  of  the  gravel 
would  soon  settle  in  the  bed  of  the  stream  which 
flowed  away  from  the  flume,  but  the  lighter  por- 
tions would  travel  on  and  on  with  the  water,  till 
the  current  became  so  slow  that  the  mud  preferred 
to  settle. 

So  much  mud  and  gravel  was  brought  down 
from  the  mines,  that  some  of  the  smaller  rivers 
became  clogged  and  overflowed  their  banks,  and 
at  length  a  law  was  passed,  forbidding  the  work- 
ing of  "  hydraulic  mines,"  unless  the  miners  would 
keep  their  refuse  at  home. 

As  this  was  almost   impossible,  most  of  these 


EASTERN    OYSTERS.  29 

mines  ceased  to  be  worked,  and  the  miners  paid 
more  attention  to  getting  gold  directly  from  the 
rocks.  And  so  the  gravel  banks  are  waiting  for 
some  process  which  will  allow  men  to  secure  the 
gold  without  washing  away  the  country  also. 


THE   GOLDEN   GATE. 


When  the  muddy  water  of  the  rivers  reaches 
the  bay,  it  meets  the  sea-water  coming  in  from 
the  ocean,  through  the  Golden  Gate.  This  must 
happen  twice  a  day,  when  the  tide  is  rising,  and 
at  such  times  the  flow  of  the  rivers  is  stopped. 


30  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

The  water  then  spreads  out  to  the  sides,  and  much 
of  the  mud  settles  on  the  great  flats. 

Then  the  tide  falls,  and  the  water  in  the  center 
of  the  bay  goes  rushing  out  through  the  strait  into 
the  ocean.  All  the  mud  it  carries  now  quickly 
settles,  for  mud  and  salt  do  not  like  each  other, 
and  besides,  the  motion  of  the  river  is  stopped  by 
the  ocean,  and  it  must  lay  down  its  burden.  The 
mud  and  sand  at  this  point  form  a  great  horse- 
shoe-shaped bar,  making  the  water  shallow,  and 
causing  much  trouble  for  ships  when  the  waves 
are  high. 

But  at  present  we  are  not  concerned  about  the 

bar,  nor  the 
rough  waves 
which  make 
passengers  so 
sick  when  they 
go  over  it  in 
Figure  12.  the  steamer  s. 

We  are  thinking  of  the  great  mud-flats  which  are 
left  bare  at  low  tide.  These  flats  are  the  home  of 
distinguished  visitors  from  the  East,  and  we  will 
now  proceed  to  make  their  acquaintance. 


EASTERN    OYSTERS. 

II.    WHO  THEY  ARE,  AND  How  THEY  CAME  HERE. 

A  great  many  years  ago  there  were  plenty  of 
large  oysters  living  in  the  sea  off  the  coast  of  Cali- 
fornia. Some  of  them  were  very  large  indeed,— 
so  big  that  a  ten-year-old  boy  would  not  want  to 
carry  one  very  far  without  resting.  The  shells 
would  be  almost  as  long  as  one  of  his  arms  and  a 
good  deal  thicker  than  his  fist,  and  what  a  time 
he  would  have  in  trying  to  open  one  of  them. 

But  all  of  that  kind  of  oysters  have  been  dead 
for  thousands  of  years;  possibly  they  were  all  dead 
before  there  was  a  man  upon  the  earth.  Yet  we 
now  find  their  shells  in  the  rocks,  high  up  on  the 
coast  mountains,  in  the  western  part  of  Fresno 
County,  and  in  other  localities. 

Long,  long  ago,  the  ocean  waves  must  have 
rolled  over  those  places,  and  the  great  oysters 
had  a  happy  life;  but  there  came  a  change,  and 
the  ocean  beach  was  slowly  lifted  up,  and  changed 
into  a  range  of  mountains,  while  the  sea  crept 
away  to  the  westward. 

Well,  after  this  age  there  came  another  one, 
and  the  oysters  of  the  new  age  were  far  smaller 
than  those  of  the  old  one.  In  fact,  they  were  lit- 
tle fellows,  with  thin  shells  about  as  large  as  the 
petals  of  a  big  rose.  The  meats  were  good  eating, 


32  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

but  so  small  that  a  man  needed  about  a  hundred 
to  make  a  good  meal. 

These  "native"  oysters  now  live  all  along  our 
coast,  being  especially  good  in  the  northern  parts, 
about  Puget  Sound.  In  some  parts  of  San  Fran- 
cisco Bay  their  shells  wash  up  on  the  shore  and 
are  gathered  in  great  quantities.  They  are  sold 
for  making  walks,  for  feeding  to  chickens,  and  for 
other  purposes. 

As  soon  as  the  railroad  from  California  to  the 
East  had  been  built  over  the  mountains  and  across 
the  plains,  there  was  a  chance  to  bring  live  oysters 
from  the  Atlantic  coast  and  plant  them  in  the 
shallow  waters  of  the  bay.  Young  oysters  can  be 
conveniently  packed  in  barrels,  and  if  they  are 
kept  moist  and  cool,  they  will  live  for  a  week  or 
more,  and  that  is  long  enough  to  bring  them  on 
the  cars  from  one  ocean  to  the  other. 

When  they  arrive  in  Oakland,  they  are  at  once 
put  upon  rafts  and  taken  to  the  places  which  have 
been  well  fenced  to  keep  out  the  big  fishes  that 
like  oysters  as  well  as  we  do.  Then  a  man  on  the 
raft  takes  up  a  shovelful  of  little  oysters,  and  sows 
them  into  the  water  as  a  farmer  sows  grain. 

In  this  way  large  spaces  were  planted  with 
Eastern  oysters.  The  water  was  not  very  deep, 
and  in  some  parts  of  the  beds  the  oysters  would 


EASTERN    OYSTERS.  33 

be  left  bare  at  low  tide,  but  they  did  not  care,  for 
in  a  little  while  they  would  be  covered  again  with 
water,  and  could  open  their  shells  again  without 
danger  of  drying  up. 

After  living  three  or  four  years  in  our  bay,  the 
little  oysters  have  grown  from  the  size  of  a  dime 
or  a  silver  quarter  to  be  as  large  as  one  of  your 
hands,  and  now  it  is  time  for  them  to  be  taken 
to  market. 

So  a  man  goes  out  on  a  raft,  and  with  a  pair  of 
tongs  shaped  like  two  rakes  hinged  together  he 
gathers  the  oysters  from  the  bottom  of  the  bay 
and  piles  them  up  on  the  raft.  In  many  cases  a 
number  of  shells  have  grown  together,  but  they 
are  easily  separated  by  a  light  hammer,  and  then 
the  oysters  are  sorted  and  put  in  different  piles, 
according  to  their  size. 

The  largest  ones  are  put  into  boxes  and  sent  to 
the  city  markets,  where  they  are  sold  for  forty  or 
fifty  cents  a  dozen.  A  second  size  are  sold  for 
less,  while  those  that  are  too  small  for  the  market 
are  thrown  back  into  the  water  and  allowed  to  live 
a  year  or  two  more.  Perhaps  you  will  ask  why 
all  of  them  are  not  kept  till  they  will  fetch  the 
highest  price  in  the  city  markets. 

There  are  two  answers  that  might  be  given.  In 
the  first  place,  the  oyster-men  have  been  to  great 

W.S.R.  VOL.  8—3 


34  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

expense  in  bringing  the  young  oysters  from  the 
Atlantic,  and  they  are  anxious  to  get  their  money 
back  as  soon  as  possible.  And  in  the  second 
place,  oysters,  like  many  other  creatures,  have  a 
habit  of  dying  after  they  have  lived  a  few  years, 
and  the  owners  would  prefer  to  sell  a  hundred 
dozen  this  year  at  thirty  cents  a  dozen,  rather 
than  run  the  risk  of  having  only  fifty  dozen  live 
ones  two  years  hence,  worth  even  fifty  cents  a 
dozen. 

Besides,  the  oyster  has  several  enemies,  some 
of  which  are  likely  to  break  in  upon  the  beds  and 
cause  great  destruction.  One  of  these  enemies  is 
the  starfish,  of  which  we  will  speak  later,  and 
another  is  a  big  triangular  fish  with  a  huge 
mouth  that  is  so  armed  with  teeth  that  he  can 
crush  an  oyster's  shell  and  suck  out  the  delicate 
meat.  This  fish  is  called  the  Ray,  and  since  he 
has  a  sharp,  bony  thorn  on  his  back,  the  boys 
call  him  a  sting-ray,  or  more  commonly,  a 
stingaree. 

To  keep  these  fishes  out  of  the  "  oyster-pasture," 
a  close  fence  is  made  by  driving  poles  or  stakes 
into  the  mud.  This  fence  must  extend  entirely 
around  the  portion  of  the  bay  which  is  to  be 
planted,  and  the  stakes  must  be  so  close  together 
that  the  fishes  cannot  get  through.  They  must  be 


EASTERN    OYSTERS.  35 

examined  frequently,  for  a  single  broken  stake 
might  let  in  enough  enemies  in  one  night  to 
cause  great  destruction. 

And  so  you  see  the  oyster  lives  in  a  kind  of 
prison;  but  the  defenses  are  not  to  keep  him  in, 
but  rather  to  keep  his  enemies  out.  Even  then 
the  starfishes  may  creep  in  between  the  stakes, 
but  they  move  slowly,  and  when  they  are  found 
they  are  slaughtered  without  mercy. 

There  are  just  two  other  enemies  to  oysters 
that  we  will  mention  at  this  time.  Since  neither 
of  them  are  alive,  they  cannot  be  destroyed  by 
killing.  In  this  they  differ  from  the  starfish. 
Their  names  are  frost  and  mud. 

Frost  comes  on  cold  winter  nights,  and  mud 
comes  in  the  time  of  very  heavy  rains.  Frost 
never  does  any  harm  unless  a  very  low  tide  comes 
with  it,  leaving  the  tender  oysters  exposed  to 
the  cold  night  air.  Then  the  poor  things  are 
liable  to  shiver  for  a  while,  and  then  go  to  sleep, 
never  to  wake  up  again.  But  this  enemy  is  not 
much  feared  in  California. 

With  mud  the  case  is  different,  for  if  the  oyster- 
grounds  are  too  near  the  inlet  of  a  brook,  it  is 
possible  that  in  times  of  freshet  a  great  quantity 
of  soil  will  be  brought  down  from  the  land  and 
spread  over  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  burying  the 


36  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

unfortunate  bivalves  out  of  sight.  They  are  help- 
less creatures,  and  cannot  dig  their  way  out,  as 
clams  might  do,  and  so  they  are  liable  to  perish 
before  the  oyster-men  are  able  to  go  to  their  as- 
sistance. 

So  you  see  that  the  raising  of  oysters,  like  the 
raising  of  cattle,  is  attended  with  much  expense 
and  many  difficulties;  and  though  their  food  costs 
nothing,  —  for  they  eat  the  little  living  particles 
that  exist  in  sea-water,  —  still  it  is  not  probable 
that  they  will  ever  be  very  cheap  on  this  coast. 

This  seems  all  the  more  true,  since  young 
oysters  are  continually  being  brought  from  the 
East,  instead  of  being  raised  here  at  home.  It  is 
thought  that  the  very  young  oysters,  which  come 
from  the  tiny  eggs  of  the  old  ones,  mostly  perish 
in  the  cold  waters  of  the  bay  before  they  get  a 
good  start  in  life,  and  so  the  traffic  in  "  Eastern 
oysters  "  is  likely  to  go  on  for  many  years. 

BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

extensive  (ex-t6n'siv),  material  (ma-te'ri-al),  contri- 
vances (kdn-triv'an-sez),  acquaintance  (ak-quant'ans), 
conveniently  (k6n-ven'yent-ly),  triangular  (tri-ari'gu- 
lar),  particles  (par'ti-klz),  continually  (kSn-tm'u-al-ly), 
slaughter  (sla'ter). 


THE    SOFT-SHELLED   CLAM. 


FEW  years  after  the  first  Eastern 
oysters  had  been  planted  in  San 
Francisco  Bay,  a  man  who  studies 
shells  was  much  sur- 
prised to  find  a  new 
clam  living  near  them. 
r-  There  were  only  a  few 
specimens  of  the  strange  clam,  and  these  were  not 
very  large,  but  they  were  examined  with  much 
care.  They  greatly  resembled  the  clams  of  Rhode 
Island,  which  are  so  much  prized  in  that  state, 
but  as  they  were  supposed  to  be  somewhat  differ- 
ent, they  were  given  a  new  name.  This  name  was 
selected  in  honor  of  Mr.  Henry  Hemphill,  a  gen- 
tleman who  has  collected 
and  studied  our  Western 
shells  very  extensively. 

The  first  shells  were 
found  in  November,  1874, 
but  in  a  few  years  they 
began  to  be  very  common, 
and  then  it  was  found  that 

37 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Rhode  Island  clams. 

Latin  names. 

The  microscope. 

Oxygen. 

Cost  of  oysters. 

"Happy  as  a  clam." 

Importations  by  rail. 


38  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

a  mistake  had  been  made,  and  that  the  clam  was 
not  new  at  all.  It  was  only  the  soft-shelled  clam 
of  the  Atlantic. 

It  is  almost  certain  that  a  few  had  been  brought 
with  the  young  oysters,  and  that  they  had  multi- 
plied rapidly  and  spread  to  other  parts  of  the  bay. 
Figure  13  is  a  picture  of  the  inside  of  one  of  the 
shells.  Its  Latin  name  is  Mya  arenaria. 

Since  that  time  they  have  increased  exceedingly, 
and  have  gone  wherever  they  could  find  good 

ground  to  live 
in,  and  now  mil- 
lions of  them  in- 
habit the  great 
mud-flats  which 
are  laid  bare  by 
the  fall  of  the 
tides. 
The  young  oy- 

Figure  13. 

sters,  as  we  have 

learned  in  the  last  chapter,  are  tender  creatures, 
and  most  of  them  seem  to  perish  before  they  get 
their  shells.  But  it  is  not  so  with  the  clams. 
Their  young  ones  seem  to  delight  in  the  cool 
waters  of  the  bay,  and  they  speedily  find  a  good 
field  of  mud,  and  begin  to  grow  and  dig  and 
build  a  good  pair  of  shells. 


THE    SOFT-SHELLED    CLAM.  39 

The  habits  of  the  clam  are  very  different  from 
those  of  the  oyster.  At  first  they  are  very  much 
alike,  being  tiny,  swimming  bodies,  without  shells, 
and  too  small  to  be  seen  without  a  strong  micro- 
scope. At  length  the  little  oyster  settles  on  an  old 
shell  or  a  stake,  turns  upon  his  side,  and  begins 
to  form  a  pair  of  shells,  one  of  which  becomes 
attached  to  the  support. 

This  spot  is  his  home,  and  of  his  own  accord 
he  never  leaves  it  so  long  as  he  lives.  He  has  no 
foot  to  dig  with  and  no  pipe  to  breathe  through; 
so  he  lives  by  opening  his  shells  in  the  water,  and 
letting  it  pass  over  his  gills,  which  gather  any 


Figure  14. 

particles  of  floating  food.  If  an  enemy  comes,  he 
can  close  his  shells,  and  that  is  all  that  he  can  do. 
But  with  the  clam  it  is  very  different.  His  first 
instinct  is  to  dig  a  hole  and  get  down  out  of  the  way 
of  all  his  enemies.  His  little  tongue-shaped  foot 
is  the  organ  which  he  uses  as  a  spade,  and  in  a 
little  while  he  is  safely  out  of  sight. 


40  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

But  safety  is  not  enough.  A  band  of  robbers 
may  be  perfectly  safe  in  a  deep  cave,  but  they  can- 
not stay  there  always,  unless  they  are  willing  to 
starve.  So  our  little  clam  must  have  communica- 
tion with  the  sea,  and  must  get  fresh  supplies 
from  that  great  source  of  food. 

But  he  cannot  conveniently  come  up  out  of  his 
burrow,  for  he  is  getting  bigger  every  day,  and 
the  hole  by  which  he  entered  is  too  small  to  let 
him  out.  However,  he  has  no  need  to  come  out, 
for  he  has  two  slender  tubes  attached  to  his  body, 
though  they  are  grown  together  so  as  to  look  like 
one. 

When  the  tide  is  out,  he  lies  snug  and  quiet  at 
the  bottom  of  his  burrow,  just  waiting.  By  and 
by  he  hears  a  faint  splashing,  and  soon  a  cool 
bath  of  salt  water  comes  running  down  his  little 
burrow.  He  is  happy  now,  for  he  knows  that  the 
tide  has  risen,  and  that  his  quarters  are  well  con- 
cealed by  the  flowing  water.  So  he  sends  up  the 
two  tubes,  or  siphons  as  they  are  named,  though 
some  people  call  them  his  neck,  and  opens  their 
ends  in  the  clear  water  at  the  surface  of  the  mud. 

Now,  on  his  gills  are  thousands  of  very  minute 
hairs,  called  cilia,  and  he  sets  these  cilia  to  lash- 
ing in  such  a  direction  that  the  water  is  pulled 
down  one  tube  and  forced  up  the  other.  What  a 


THE    SOFT-SHELLED    CLAM. 


41 


grand  contrivance!  for  with  the  water  there  comes 
down  a  small  amount  of  air  also,  which  had  been 
dissolved  by  the  foamy  waves.  This  air  passes 
over  his  gills,  which  are  really  a  series  of  fine  tubes 
containing  the  creature's 
blood,  and  as  it  passes, 
the  blood  absorbs  the  rich 
oxygen  of  the  air,  and 
thus  becomes  purified. 

But  the  gills  also  collect 
the  food-particles  which 
are  in  the  water,  and  roll 
them  along  to  one  end, 
where  they  are  gathered 
together  by  the  four  white 
lips,  and  pressed  into  the 
mouth,  that  is  ever  ready 
to  receive  them.  What  a 
happy  creature  is  the  clam ! 
And  yet,  I  do  not  think 
his  happiness  is  of  a  very 
high  order.  Do  you? 

The  enemies  that  ever 
threaten  the  oyster  can  never  harm  the  clam. 
The  starfish  cannot  reach  him;  the  sting-ray  can- 
not bite  him;  he  has  no  fear  of  mud,  for  he  lives 
in  it;  and  as  for  frost,  he  is  too  deeply  buried  for 
it  to  touch  him. 


HENRY  HEMPHILL,  who  now 
lives  in  San  Diego,  California, 
has  made  remarkable  collec- 
tions of  shells.  He  is  a  mason 
by  trade,  and  did  not  begin 
to  gather  shells  till  he  was  of 
adult  years,  when  he  picked 
up  a  few  fora  scientific  friend. 
Mr.  Hemphill  began  to  get  in- 
terested in  the  subiect,  and  at 
length  devoted  most  of  his 
time  to  the  work  of  exploring 
the  shores  and  the  mountains 
for  their  shells.  He  spent  two 
winters  in  Florida,  collecting 
for  the  government.  He  has 
also  explored  the  mountains 
of  Utah  and  Idaho  very  exten- 
sively, searching  for  snails, 
of  which  he  has  found  many 
species  and  varieties. 

He  is  very  methodical  in  his 
work,  and  his  specimens  are 
beautifully  cleaned  and  pre- 
pared for  the  museum.  He 
has  probably  gathered  more 
shells  than  any  other  man 
now  living. 


42  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

His  chief  enemies  are  men;  for  they  are  not 
slow  in  finding  out  his  places  of  retreat,  and  with 
shovels  they  quickly  uncover  his  hiding-place  and 
gather  him  into  their  baskets.  His  flesh,  though 
not  quite  so  delicate  as  that  of  the  oyster,  is  very 
palatable,  and  a  well-made  clam  chowder  is  a  dish 
not  to  be  despised. 

Another  point  in  his  favor  is  his  cheapness. 
Comparatively  few  people  can  afford  to  eat  oysters 
freely,  on  account  of  the  expense,  and  no  one  can 
enter  the  inclosures  and  gather  them,  without  per- 
mission from  the  owners  of  the  tide-lands.  But 
clams  can  be  found  almost  anywhere  along  the 
borders  of  the  bay,  and  in  most  places  any  one  is 
allowed  to  dig  them  out  whenever  the  tide  is  low. 

And  so  we  see  that  the  railroad  has  been  instru- 
mental in  introducing  not  only  the  aristocratic 
oyster,  that  is  eaten  chiefly  by  the  rich,  but  also 
the  humble  clam,  which  now  daily  furnishes  a 
large  quantity  of  cheap  and  nutritious  food. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

extensively  (ex-ten'siv-ly),  Mya  (mi'a),  arenaria  (ar-e- 
na'ri-a),  microscope  (mi'kro-skop),  communication  (k6m- 
mu-m-ka'shtin),  conveniently  (kon-ven'yent-ly),  concealed 
(kon-seld'),  palatable  (pal'at-a-bl),  aristocratic  (a-ris'to- 
krat-Ik),  nutritious  (nu-trlsh'tts),  cilia  (sll'I-a). 


SNAILS   AND   SLUGS. 


,  HERE  is  an  old  proverb  that  a  lazy  boy 
is  as  slow  as  a  snail.  The  proverb 
is  true,  but  the  snail  is  not  to 
blame.  The  blame  should  all  fall 
upon  the  lazy  boy.  The  snail  is 
slow  because  he  has  no  feet  like 
the  lizard,  no  bones  and  scales  like  the  snake,  and 
no  wings  like  the  bee.  When  he  moves,  he  must 
glide  along  the  surface  on  which  he  is  resting, 
without  walking,  swimming,  or  flying. 

Under  his  body  is  a  flat,  muscular  organ,  some- 
times called  the  foot,  and  on  this  organ  he  rests 
while  he  is  making  his  slow  progress  along  the 
ground.  As  you  look  at 
him  from  above,  the  won- 
der is  that  he  can  move  at 
all.  But  if  you  put  him 
on  a  moist  pane  of  glass 
and  look  through  to  this 
curious  foot,  you  will  be 
surprised  to  see  the  move- 
ments of  the  hundreds  of 

43 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Nature  of  muscles. 

What  countries  have 
warm,  moist  climates? 

Dry  climates? 

Why  names  are  in  Latin. 

Habits  of  the  blue  jay. 

Kindness  towards  ani- 
mals. 


44  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

little  muscles  which  stretch  from  one  side  to  the 
other. 

When  he  is  moving,  those  muscles  in  front  con- 
tract first,  making  his  body  a  little  longer;  then 
those  farther  back,  and  so  on  to  the  very  end. 
You  may  see  half  a  dozen  waves  of  muscle  at  one 
time,  one  behind  the  other,  and  all  of  them  slowly 
urging  the  little  body  onward.  You  will  proba- 
bly cease  to  think  of  the  snail  as  slow  or  lazy, 
and  will  be  pleased  to  see  how  rapid  and  perfect 
are  the  movements  of  the  parts  of  this  strange 
foot. 

The  snail  loves  a  moist,  warm  climate.  His 
progress  is  too  slow  to  make  it  safe  for  him  to  un- 
dertake a  long  journey  in  the  daytime,  when  the 
sun  is  shining  brightly,  and  so  he  does  most  of 
his  traveling  at  night,  when  there  is  no  danger 
of  his  being  dried  up  en  route.  For  you  see  he 
cannot  carry  a  canteen  along  with  him,  like  the 
camel,  but  must  depend  on  local  supplies  of 
moisture. 

For  this  reason  he  prefers  the  winter  climate 
of  California  to  that  of  the  summer,  except  in  the 
mountains,  where  snows  lie  deep  for  months  at  a 
time.  In  such  places,  however,  you  do  not  often 
find  many  snails,  for  the  climate  is  too  cold  in 
winter  and  too  dry  in  summer  to  favor  their  rapid 


SNAILS    AND    SLUGS. 


45 


increase.  Most  warm,  well-watered  islands,  as  the 
West  Indies,  abound  with  snails. 

But  in  spite  of  our  dry  summers  a  good  many 
snails  manage  to  exist  in  California,  especially  ia 
the  neighborhood  of  the  ocean,  where  the  incom- 
ing fogs  keep  their  soft  bodies  moist  and  healthy. 
If  a  dry  time  come,  they  creep  into  some  sheltered 
spot,  like  a  crack  in  a  stump,  or  get  under  *% 
friendly  old  board.  Then  they  retreat  into  their 
shells,  and  spin  a  heavy  curtain  across  the  en- 
trance, to  keep  out  the  dry  air  and  to  protect 
themselves  from  troublesome  intruders.  They 
are  cunning  fellows,  these  snails. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  creatures  that  are  com- 
monly called  snails:  those  that  have  shells  and 
those  that  have  none.  Of  these,  the  former  are 
the  true  snails,  while  those  without  shells  are 
properly  called  slugs.  The  latter  are  more  hardy 
than  the  snails,  and  in  some  parts  of  California 
they  are  so  numerous  that  they  become  quite 
disagreeable.  The  big  yellow  ones  are  often  as 
long  as  a  new  lead  pencil  and  three  times  as  far 
through.  Figure  15  shows  the  appearance  of  one 
of  these  yellow  slugs. 


Figure  15. 


46  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

They  are  very  fond  of  orange-peel,  and  may 
often  be  found  contentedly  gnawing  a  piece  that 
has  been  thrown  down  beside  some  path.  They 
will  also  drink  milk  from  a  saucer.  But,  while 
they  enjoy  the  aromatic  orange-peel,  they  are 
nearly  as  willing  to  feast  on  the  remains  of  a  dead 
comrade;  so  you  see  their  tastes  are  not  fastidious. 

There  are  other  slugs,  much  smaller  in  size, 
and  usually  of  a  dark  color.  Some  of  these  lurk 
in  the  soil  of  flower-beds,  and  come  up  at  night  to 

eat  the  young  sweet 
peas  or  pansies,  but 
are  gone  again  before 
Figure  16.  yOU  COme  out  in  the 

morning  to  lament  over  your  misfortune.  Lay 
down  some  pieces  of  old  board  among  your  flow- 
ers, and  you  may  be  able  to  trap  the  spoilers. 

All  of  the  true  snails  have  pretty  spiral  shells, 
which  they  carry  around  with  them  wherever 
they  go,  as  is  shown  in  Figure  16.  A  part  of  the 
body  always  remains  inside  the  shell;  but  when 
the  animal  is  moving  or  feeding,  the  greater  part 
of  the  body  is  outside,  and  the  place  which  it  once 
occupied  is  filled  with  air.  You  can  find  a  little 
hole  in  the  soft  ring  around  the  opening  of  the 
shell,  where  the  air  goes  in  and  out,  as  need  may 
require. 


SNAILS    AND    SLUGS. 


47 


Figure  17. 


Most  of  the  snail-shells  which  you  find  near  our 
coast  are  of  a  brownish  color,  and  many  of  them 
are  marked  by  darker 
bands  running  spirally 
along  with  the  whorls,  or 
turns  of  the  shell.  One 
of  the  finest  of  these 
shells  is  shown  in  Figure 
17.  It  is  found  in  Ore- 
gon and  Washington,  chiefly  in  the  western  por- 
tions, and  it  extends  as  far  east  as  the  Cascade 
Mountains.  The  Latin  name  is 
Helix  fidelis,  and  we  can  translate 
it  as  the  "  Faithful  snail. " 

Figure  18  represents  a  snail- 
shell  that  is  found  in   southern 
Figure  is.  California,  and  Figure  19  shows 

another  that  is  found  in  the  same  region.  This 
shell,  however,  is  very  different  in  shape  and 
color.  It  is  almost  black,  and 
looks  like  a  great  button.  When 
summer  comes,  its  owner  bur- 
rows in  the  ground  arid  remains 
concealed  and  asleep  till  the  win- 
ter rains  revive  its  dormant  life.  Figure  19. 

All  of  the  snail-shells  are  very  pretty  objects 
for  the  cabinet,  and  live  snails  may  be  kept  as 


48  WESTERN    SERIES    OP    READERS. 

pets.  They  will  live  in  boxes  spread  with  moist 
earth,  and  as  for  food,  they  enjoy  such  leaves  as 
we  ourselves  eat,  as  lettuce  and  cabbage. 

They  like  to  creep  under  a  convenient  piece 
of  bark  or  an  old  board,  and  we  must  remem- 
ber that  they  are  most  active  at  night.  If 
you  give  them  a  large  wire-covered  box,  they 
will  lay  eggs  in  the  springtime,  and  after  a 
few  weeks  you  may  have  a  fine  brood  of  little 
snails. 

During  the  summer  months  most  of  the  snails 
either  burrow  in  the  sand  or  seek  sheltered  spots 
under  logs  or  pieces  of  bark.  They  then  retire 
into  their  shells  as  far  as  possible,  and  remain 
dormant  till  the  autumn  or  winter  rains  call  them 
out  to  their  active  life  once  more. 

During  their  period  of  retirement  they  are 
sometimes  found  by  hungry  birds  like  the  blue 
jays,  which  break  open  the  brittle  shells  with 
their  strong  bills,  and  cruelly  devour  the  sleeping 
occupants.  I  think  the  plumage  of  the  blue  jay 
is  much  more  to  be  admired  than  his  character; 
for  he  is  a  willful  and  cruel  destroyer. 

In  all  our  dealings  with  animals,  let  us  not  imi- 
tate the  jay;  but  on  the  other  hand,  let  us  not  in- 
flict unnecessary  pain,  nor  take  any  life  wantonly. 
And  as  we  become  acquainted  with  these  humble 


SNAILS    AND    SLUGS.  49 

animals,  we  shall  see  much  to  admire  and  much 
to  give  us  instruction. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

muscular  (mtis'ku-lar),  contract  (kon-trakf),  intruders 
(m-trud'erz),  fastidious  (fas-tid'i-us),  Helix  (helix),  fldelis 
(fi-de'lis),  retirement  (re-tir'ment),  occupants  (6k' ku- 
pantz). 

W.S.R.  VOL.  8—4 


ABALONES,    OR   SEA-EARS. 


with  me  early  some  morning  and 
we  will  make  a  little  excursion  to  the 
home  of  the  abalones.  We  will  go 
down  to  a  place  where  the 
great  cliffs  have  been  pounded 
and  broken  by  the  waves  and 
storms  of  centuries.  All  the 
softer  parts  of  the  rock  have  been  gone  for  a  long 
time,  and  as  fast  as  new  portions  crumble,  they 
are  swept  away  immediately  and  made  into  sand 
or  clay. 

The  harder  portions  of  the  ledge  stand  out,  rough 
and  stern,  and  through 
the  channels  between  these 
jagged  remains  the  water 
surges,  cool  and  green. 
We  put  on  our  long  rub- 
ber boots  and  wade  fear- 
lessly in  where  the  water 
is  not  too  deep,  though  al- 
ways keeping  an  eye  open 
for  breakers  ahead;  for  we 

50 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Jagged  coast-lines. 

Protective  organs. 

Can  turtles  turn  over  ? 

Salt  and  fresli  waters. 

California  Indians. 

Shell-mounds . 

Let  us  spare  natural  ob- 
jects. 

The  "  Japanese  cur- 
rent." 


ABALONES,    OR    SEA-EARS.  51 

know  that  waves  are  no  respecters  of  persons,  and 
it  would  be  no  joke  to  lose  one's  footing  so  near 
to  deep  water. 

Here  we  are  at  last,  right  in  the  very  home  of 
the  creatures  that  build  the  finest  shells  to  be 
found  on  our  coast.  They  are  living  on  the  rocks 
all  about  us,  and  we  are  very  glad  to  pay  them 
this  friendly  visit;  for  it  is  far  from  our  purpose 
to  disturb 
'these  peace- 
ful creatures. 
Weonlywish 
to  see  how, 
theyfare,and>( 
observe  their ' 
pleasant  sur- 
roundings. 

We  notice 
that  they  are 

*  Figure  20. 

all    clinging 

to  the  surface  of  the  rocks,  and  that  the  soft  parts 
of  the  animal  are  well  protected  by  the  thick,  low- 
arched  shell,  on  one  side  of  which  is  a  row  of 
holes,  which  answer  the  same  purpose  as  the 
chimney  of  the  keyhole  limpet. 

We  notice,  in  the  second  place,  that  many  of 
these   liijollweks    seek    for    some     sheltered    spot, 


52  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

especially  for  a  deep  crack  in  the  rocks,  into  which 
they  may  creep  and  feel  secure  from  their  ene- 
mies. Others  are  clinging  to  the  under  side  of 
an  overhanging  shelf  of  stone,  or  are  wedged  in 
between  two  masses  of  rock  that  are  lying  close 
together. 

We  will  put  our  hands  on  one  of  those  that  are 
most  exposed,  and  try  to  lift  him  up  so  that  we 
may  hold  him  for  a  little  while,  as  we  would  hold 
a  pet  kitten.  But  he  evidently  is  not  anxious  to 
be  fondled,  and  only  clings  the  tighter,  and  ut- 
terly refuses  to  accept  our  well-meant  attentions. 
We  cannot  blame  the  poor  fellow,  for  he  has  no 
means  of  knowing  that  we  are  unlike  those  who 
come  to  take  his  life  just  for  the  sake  of  getting 
his  pretty  shell. 

If  we  insist  that  we  must  take  him  in  our 
hands,  whether  he  is  willing  or  not,  we  shall  be 
obliged  to  use  either  stratagem  or  force,  or  per- 
haps both  combined.  So  we  cautiously  creep  up 
to  one  that  has  his  shell  raised  a  little,  and  sud- 
denly dislodge  him  with  a  chisel,  or  the  broad 
blade  of  a  table-knife. 

Very  likely  he  will  fall  into  the  water,  and  we 
shall  have  to  roll  up  our  sleeves  and  reach  for 
him0  Perhaps  even  then  the  water  will  be  too 
deep,  and  all  that  we  shall  get  will  be  a  cool  arm- 


ABALONES,    OR    SEA-EARS.  53 

bath.  But  we  try  again,  and  at  length  we  have 
a  fine  specimen  in  our  hands.  We  notice  his 
great  yellow  foot,  which  is  made  up  of  muscular 
fibers.  It  seems  to  be  in  continual  motion,  as  if 
it  were  trying  to  get  hold  of  something,  which,  in 
fact,  is  just  what  it  is  trying  to  do. 

This  foot  has  a  rim  of  black  skin,  and  above 
this  is  the  black  mantle,  with  numerous  little 
feelers  arranged  like  the  threads  of  a  fringe. 
The  cold-blooded  fellow  evidently  does  not  like 
the  warmth  of  our  hands,  and  so,  after  looking 
at  him  for  a  little  while,  we  decide  to  see  how  he 
will  behave  when  left  to  himself. 

We  put  our  creature  down  upon  a  mossy  rock, 
and  sit  down  beside  him  to  watch  his  motions. 
To  keep  him  from  clinging  tight  again,  we  turn 
him  on  his  back;  but  he  is  no  more  easy  than  a 
turtle  would  be  in  that  position.  We  see  him 
put  out  his  stumpy  head,  somewhat  after  the 
manner  of  a  turtle,  though  not  so  far  from  his 
shell,  and  then  his  great  muscular  foot  grows 
long  and  slender,  and  reaches  out  over  the  side  of 
the  shell.  As  soon  as  a  bit  of  it  can  feel  the  rock, 
it  clings  fast,  shortens  itself  rapidly,  and  lo!  our 
abalone  is  right  side  up,  and  is  creeping  away  at 
a  great  rate. 

The  front    and    back    parts  of    the  single  foot 


54  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

shorten  alternately,  and  the  creature  moves  clum- 
sily forward,  his  gait  being  ludicrously  like  that 
of  an  elephant. 

We  notice  that  his  mouth  is  a  little,  puckered 
hole  at  the  end  of  a  short  snout,  that  his  eyes  are 
very  small  and  set  on  short  stalks,  and  that  he 
has  two  short,  whip-like  tentacles,  or  feelers,  just 
above  the  eyes. 

The  poor  fellow  travels  rapidly  for  a  mollusk, 
perhaps  two  or  three  feet  a  minute,  and  we  are 
very  willing  to  allow  him  to  reach  the  water  and 
once  more  feel  at  home;  for  we  know  that  all  his 
motions  will  seem  more  graceful  and  natural 
when  he  is  submerged,  than  when  he  is  trying  to 
work  in  just  thin  air,  such  as  we  have  to  breathe. 

In  fact,  he  will  not  live  very  long  in  the  air, 
nor  even  in  a  jar  of  salt  water;  and  as  for  fresh 
water,  why,  if  you  feel  that  you  must  take  his  life, 
the  most  merciful  way  to  do  it  is  to  drop  him 
into  a  pail  of  water  from  a  brook  or  spring,  just 
warm  enough  to  wade  in,  and  he  will  be  past 
feeling  in  a  very  short  time. 

Then  you  can  easily  separate  the  shell  from 
the  body  by  thrusting  the  end  of  a  broad  knife 
between  the  head  and  the  shell,  and  loosening 
the  great  muscle  which  is  attached  to  the  inside 
of  the  shell.  And  then  you  can  see  the  beautiful 


ABALONES,    OR    SEA-EARS.  55 

rainbow  colors  of  which  the  lining  of  the  shell 
seems  to  be  made,  especially  at  the  place  where 
you  loosen  the  muscle. 

In  fact,  it  is  to  obtain  these  lovely  pearl-lined 
shells  that  so  many  of  these  creatures  are  an- 
nually caught  along  our  coasts.  The  small  ones 
are  neglected,  but  men  go  out  in  boats  at  low 
tide,  when  the  waves  are  quiet,  and  with  hooks 
and  chisels 
on  the  ends 
of  long  poles 
dislodge  them 
from  their 
resting-places 
on  the  rocks 
and  take  them 
on  board. 

Of  late,  reg-  Fieure  21- 

ular  diving-suits  have  been  used,  and  in  some 
places  the  poor  abalones  have  been  so  hunted 
that  stringent  laws  have  been  made  to  prevent 
their  extermination. 

It  is  not  the  shell  alone  that  is  valuable;  the 
great  muscular  foot  is  also  prized  for  food,  es- 
pecially by  the  Chinese.  Probably  it  was  also 
eaten  by  the  Indians,  for  along  our  coast,  where 
abalones  abound,  there  may  be  found  vast  num- 


56  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERSo 

bers  of  old  shells  lying  on  the  surrounding  cliffs 
and  hills,  far  too  high  to  have  been  cast  up  by 
the  waves. 

They  are  often  mixed  with  charcoal,  ashes,  and 
various  bones  and  shells,  and  sometimes  stone 
tools  are  found  near.  These  show  that  the  ab- 
origines were  accustomed  to  come  down  to  the 
seaside  and  gather  harvests  of  food  from  its  pro- 
ductive sands  and  rocks. 

If  you  dissect  the  head  of  a  large  abalone,  you 
will  be  surprised  to  see  what  a  large  ribbon  of 
teeth  you  will  find  in  its  mouth,  and  you  will 
understand  better  how  it  rasps  its  green  food  from 
the  little  sea-plants  which  grow  so  abundantly 
upon  the  wave-swept  rocks. 

But  the  tide  is  coming,  and  soon  our  friends 
will  be  covered  with  the  cool  water,  much  to  their 
satisfaction.  We  will  just  glance  around  to  see 
what  are  the  conditions,  and  then  picture  to  our- 
selves their  ocean  home. 

When  we,  from  the  shore,  can  see  nothing  but 
the  tops  of  a  few  black  rocks  standing  out  amid 
the  foam  of  the  waves,  we  know  that  at  the  base 
of  those  rocks  the  cool,  clear  water  is  gently  mov- 
ing in  from  the  deep  sea,  or  slowly  passing  out 
as  the  tide  goes  back  again. 

We  know  that  a  soft  light  conies  in  from  above, 


ABALONES,    OR    SEA-EARS.  57 

that  the  delicate  sea-mosses  are  stretching  out 
their  feathery  arms  and  gently  waving  their  bril- 
liantly colored  branches. 

We  know  that  the  scene  is  full  of  life  and 
action;  that  graceful  fishes  are  swimming  about; 
that  companies  of  crabs,  clad  in  red  and  green 
armor,  are  actively  marching  back  and  forth; 
that  brilliant  sponges  are  drinking  in  their  food ; 
that  corals  and  starfishes,  and  seaworms  and 
sea-cucumbers,  and  dozens  of  other  sea-creatures, 
are  all  alive  and  active,  and  that  their  life  is  go- 
ing on  as  merrily  as  ours  does  at  a  May  Day 
picnic. 

Our  particular  friends  the  abalones  then  ven- 
ture out  of  their  cracks,  and  hobnob  with  their 
fellows  in  a  sociable  manner  until  an  occasional 
puff  of  air  from  above  warns  them  all  that  the 
tide  is  going  out,  and  that  it  will  behoove  all  that 
can  do  so  to  hie  to  safe  quarters,  and  all  the  rest 
to  veil  their  charms  as  much  as  possible. 

And  so  the  sea  weeds  and  mosses  lie  flat  on  the 
rocks,  the  gorgeous  worms  creep  into  their  holes, 
the  mollusks  into  their  shells,  and  the  fishes  swim 
out  to  sea,  and  when  we  arrive  with  our  long 
rubber  boots,  nearly  everything  seems  to  be 
drooping  or  asleep. 

But  if  it  is  so  beautiful  when  it  is  at  its  worst, 


ABALONES,    OR    SEA-EARS.  59 

how  lovely  must  be  the  ocean  home  when  it  is 
covered  with  water;  when  its  plants  are  all  grow- 
ing, its  fishes  all  swimming,  and  its  creeping 
things  all  creeping. 

It  is  true  that  we  are  not  fitted  to  live  in  this 
ocean  home,  and  it  would  be  a  very  sorry  thing  if 
we  should  ever  fall  overboard  and  actually  enter 
it;  but  as  we  stand  on  the  brink  of  the  sea  we  can 
look  off  and  be  glad  to  know  that  under  the 
waves  there  is  as  much  beauty,  and  perhaps  as 
much  contentment,  as  there  is  above  them. 

There  are  several  different  species  of  Haliotis, 
or  abalone,  some  of  which  are  rarely  collected. 
Those  which  you  will  find  on  the  shore,  or  which 
you  will  see  in  small  collections,  will  probably  all 
belong  to  one  or  more  of  three  species.  The 
name  Haliotis  is  the  Greek  for  "  Sea-ear, "  and 
these  creatures  are  so  called  because  the  shells 
somewhat  resemble  a  huge  ear. 

The  most  common  kind  in  southern  California 
is  the  Green  Abalone,  shown  in  Figure  20.  The 
outside  of  the  shell  is  of  a  dull-gray  color,  but  the 
inside  is  of  beautiful  greenish  pearl,  shaded  with 
blue  and  red.  The  shell  is  rather  thin,  and  has 
about  six  open  holes.  A  good-sized  specimen  is 
six  inches  long. 

The  Black  Abalone  (Figure  21)  is  very  common 


60  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

in  the  vicinity  of  Monterey.  It  is  commonly 
smaller  than  the  other  kinds,  and  has  a  dark, 
smooth  exterior,  while  within  it  shows  the  rain- 
bow colors  very  plainly.  Sometimes  as  many  as 
nine  open  holes  can  be  counted. 

The  last  kind  is  the  Red  Abalone.  A  good 
picture  of  the  outside  of  a  small  shell  is  shown  in 
Figure  22.  It  lives  with  the  last  species,  but  it 

grows  to  a 
much  greater 
size,  occasion- 
ally being  as 
large  as  a 
soup-plate.  It 
is  thick  and 
heavy  when 
old,  and  is 
readily  distin- 
guished by  its 

red  edges  and  exterior,  and  by  its  few  large,  open 
holes. 

There  is  another  kind  that  is  found  on  the  west 
coast  of  Vancouver  Island.  These  shells  also 
have  a  red  edge,  but  they  are  very  thin,  and  they 
do  not  grow  to  a  great  size.  They  very  much 
resemble  the  abalones  which  the  Japanese  gather 
from  the  shores  of  their  country,  and  which  they 


ABALONES,    OR    SEA-EARS.  61 

use  so  skillfully  in  making  various  pretty  dishes 
and  trinkets.  For  other  rare  kinds  I  must  again 
refer  you  to  the  books  which  describe  shells  more 
fully. 

BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

abalone  ( ab-a-lo'ney ),  evidently  ( ev'I-dent-ly ) ,  cau- 
tiously (ka'shus-ly),  arranged  (ar-rangd'),  alternately  (al- 
ter'nat-ly),  tentacles  (ten'ta-klz),  submerged  (sftb-merjd'), 
lining  (lin'ing),  extermination  (ex-ter-mi-na'shun),  bril- 
liantly (bril'yant-ly),  behoove  (be-hoov'),  Haliotis  (hal-i- 
o'tis),  Vancouver  (van-koo'ver),  gorgeous  (gor'jtts),  abo- 
rigines (ab-6-rij'i-nez). 


THE   STORY   OF   THE  PECTEN. 


(AS   TOLD    BY    HIMSELF.) 

NE  bright  morning  in  spring- 
time I  found  myself  swim- 
ming with  a  number  of  my 
brothers  and  sisters  in  a 
little  pool  which  had  been 
left  among  the  rocks  when 
the  tide  went  down.  Of 
course  I  did  not  then  un- 
derstand that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a  tide; 
the  only  thing  I  did  know  was,  that  I  felt  happy 
and  that  I  could  snap  my  two  shells  together  and 
make  myself  dart  off  through  the  water  at  a  great 
rate. 

After  doing  this  a  little 
while,  I  felt  tired;  so  I  just 
stopped  swimming,  and 
found  that  I  slowly  settled 
down  upon  some  sand  that 
lay  at  the  bottom  of  the 
pool.  Then  I  opened  my 
shells  and  looked  out  of 

62 


REFERENCE    TOPICS. 

The  Pecten  Shell. 

"Alr-ttzz." 

Best  bait  for  flshes. 

"Sea-fairies." 

What  is  a  byssus  ? 

Dyes  that  fade. 

Fast  colors. 

Shell-cabinets. 


"TY 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    PECTEN.  63 

the  little  eyes  which  are  in  the  margin  of  my 
mantle. 

I  could  not  see  far,  but  everything  about  me 
looked  so  fresh  and  cool  that  I  concluded  to  go  to 
sleep  for  a  little  while,  and  then  wake  up  and  swim 
races  with  my  brothers. 

I  do  not  know  how  long  I  slept,  but  after  a  hazy 
dream  about  nothing,  I  was  awakened  by  hearing 
a  rush  of  water  over  my  head,  or  over  what  you, 
perhaps,  would  call  my  head;  for  to  tell  the  truth, 
I  never  had  a  head  and  never  expect  to  have  one. 
But  a  head  is  not  necessary,  if  one  has  eyes  and 
ears  in  other  parts  of  his  body,  as  I  have. 

At  any  rate,  I  heard  a  great  rushing  sound 
above  me,  and  I  started  up  in  considerable  alarm 
and  began  to  snap  my  shells  vigorously.  I  was 
so  light  and  agile  that  my  pair  of  shells  served  me 
as  well  in  the  water  as  a  pair  of  wings  serve  a  bird 
in  the  air;  so  away  I  flew  towards  the  surface  of 
the  water,  which  I  soon  found  was  in  a  state  of 
great  commotion. 

The  little  pool  in  which  I  went  to  sleep  was 
now  all  covered,  and  the  waves  were  whirling  and 
tossing  as  if  they  intended  to  mix  the  air  and 
water  together  into  a  kind  of  soda-water  fizz. 

I  have  sin.ce  learned  that  that  was  just  what 
they  were  doing,  and  that  air-fizz  is  just  what  a 


64  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

great  many  creatures  in  the  sea  are  particularly 
fond  of,  and  that  they  make  their  homes  where 
they  will  be  pretty  sure  to  get  it  fresh  at  least 
twice  a  day. 

But  I  soon  saw  that  this  place  where  the  waves 
were  churning  air  was  no  place  for  me;  so  with  a 
few  bold  snaps  I  shot  off  for  deeper  water.  I  was 
none  too  quick,  for  just  as  I  had  made  up  my 
mind  to  move,  I  caught  sight  of  a  big-mouthed 
creature,  that  men  call  a  fish,  coming  straight 
for  me. 

He  doubtless  knew  that  the  incoming  tide  would 
startle  a  great  many  helpless  crea- 
tures like  myself,  and  he  had  come, 
ready  to  swallow  us  as  we  were 
trying  to  make  our  escape. 

Luckily  for  me,  his  attention  was 
Figure  23.  turned  at  that  instant  to  a  fat  worm 
which  seemed  to  be  swimming  just  in  front  of 
me.  His  mouth  closed  on  the  worm,  and  in  an 
instant  more  he  was  shooting  upward  as  if  he  had 
been  pulled  by  a  string,  and  I  never  saw  him 
again.  Perhaps  some  of  you  may  know  why  he 
disappeared  so  suddenly,  and  can  guess  what  be- 
came of  him. 

I  was  dreadfully  scared,  for  there  were  other 
fishes  all  about,  and  I  am  sure  some  of  my  poor 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    PECTEN.  65 

brothers  did  not  escape,  but  I  did,  and  in  a  few 
moments  I  was  down  in  the  deep  water  where 
everything  is  quiet  and  still. 

That  night,  before  I  went  to  sleep,  I  spun  some 
strong,  silky  threads  with  my  one  finger,  and  fas- 
tened myself  to  the  stem  of  a  great  seaweed,  so 
that  I  would  be  safe  even  if  a  great  storm  should 
arise.  You  can  see  the  little  notch  in  one  of  my 
shells,  where  I  put  out  my  finger  and  made  fast 
my  threads.  It  is  just  under  one  of  the  "  ears  "  of 
the  shell,  and  you  can  find  it  in  Figure  23. 

Well,  I  lived  down  in  the  water  for  a  good  many 
months,  and  I  saw  many  things  that  you  would 
like  to  see.  There  was  a  whole  bed  of  my  brothers 
and  sisters  around  me,  and  all  sorts  of  funny 
things  used  to  come  to  visit  us.  Sometimes  a  big 
jelly-fish  would  swim  by,  looking  for  all  the  world 
like  a  glass  umbrella.  We  seldom  spoke  to  the 
jellies,  for  they  seemed  rather  vain  of  their  long 
trains,  and  we  did  not  care  to  encourage  them. 

But  they  had  some  little  cousins  that  were  the 
prettiest  creatures  we  ever  saw.  They  have  a  very 
long  Greek  name,  beginning  with  C,  but  we  always 
called  them  "  sea-fairies. "  They  have  a  round 
body,  about  as  big  as  a  small  marble,  and  it  is  just 
as  clear  as  a  diamond.  They  swim  by  means  of 
little  rows  of  fringes  on  their  bodies,  and  some  of 

W.S.R.      VOL.  8 — 5 


66 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


them  have  a  pair  of  slender  arms  for  catching 
food. 

We  always  loved  to  have  them  come  and  tell  us 
stories  of  what  they  saw  while  they  were  swim- 
ming near  the  surface,  —  of  birds  and  boats  and 
bathers,  and  of  the  funny  times  the  boys  had  when 
they  were  learning  to  swim. 

Sometimes  they  would  coax  us  to  reach  out  our 

little  fingers  and 
untie  our  cords  and 
take  a  swim.  We 
were  often  willing 
to  do  this  in  fine 
weather,  and  many 
a  famous  j  ourney  we 
have  taken,  some- 
times visiting  other 
species  of  pectens 
that  have  their 
home  far  out  from 

Figure  24.  the  shore.   The  pic- 

ture of  one  of  these  is  shown  in  Figure  24.  His 
color  is  pink,  and  his  shell  is  much  prettier  than 
ours.  Again,  we  would  follow  another  kind, 
which  look  like  Figure  25,  but  some  of  them  once 
ventured  too  near  a  piece  of  marsh-land,  and  got 
stranded  when  the  tide  turned. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    PECTEN. 


67 


I  grew  rapidly,  getting  my  food  from  little 
plants  and  animals  that  abound  in  sea-water,  and 
as  I  kept  enlarging  my  pretty  shells,  they  never 
failed  to  cover  me  when  I  wished  to  be  alone.  I 
have  heard  that  our  shells  have  been  used  for 
many  purposes  by  men  and  women,  and  of  course 
the  children  al- 
ways love  to  find 
them,  and  use 
them  for  spoons 
and  dishes. 

An  old  crab 
told  me  that  one 
day  he  found  a 
book  lying  open 
on  the  rocks.  Of 
course  he  could 
not  read  it,  for  it 
was  not  written 
in  crab  language, 
but  he  did  look  Figure  25- 

at  the  pictures,  and  he  declares  that  one  of  them 
was  of  a  pilgrim  with  a  shell  like  ours  in  his  hat. 

He  also  saw  pictures  of  needle-books  and  pin- 
cushions with  scallop-shells  on  the  sides.  You 
know  that  some  people  call  us  scallops,  though  we 
really  prefer  to  be  known  as  pectens. 


68  WESTERN    SERIES    OP    READERS. 

But  the  funniest  thing  of  all  was  told  me  by  an 
oyster,  who  said  his  grandfather  had  heard  a 
fisherman  say  that  sometimes  the  meats  of  oysters 
are  mixed  with  cracker-crumbs  and  butter  and 
baked  in  large  scallop-shells,  and  so  when  they 
are  brought  to  the  table  they  are  called  escalloped 
oysters. 

And  he  said,  too,  that  lately  the  cooks  leave  out 
the  shells  (for  which  I  am  very  thankful),  but 
keep  the  name,  though  somewhat  shortened,  and 
so  they  are  called  "  scalloped  oysters, "  even  if  they 
are  baked  in  an  earthen  dish.  And  a  sea-gull 
once  told  me  that  he  had  seen  shells  like  ours 
carved  in  marble  or  fine  wood  and  used  for  beau- 
tiful decorations. 

I  feel  that  I  ain  growing  old,  and  that  in  a  little 
time  nothing  but  my  shells  will  be  left;  so  I  have 
been  asking  carefully  about  my  ancestors  and  my 
kindred,  for  I  want  to  know  who  have  gone  be- 
fore me. 

I  find  that  my  family  is  a  very  old  one,  and 
that  we  have  colonies  all  over  the  world.  Our 
flesh  has  always  been  esteemed  a  delicacy,  and  our 
shells  have  been  much  admired  by  men.  But, 
better  than  that,  I  find  that  we,  and  a  very  few  of 
our  near  relatives,  are  the  only  bivalves  in  the 
ocean  that  have  the  power  to  swim  freely  when- 
ever they  choose. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PECTEN.          69 

Some  of  my  relatives  have  shells  that  are 
fully  six  inches  across,  while  others  are  tiny 
little  things  not  larger  than  a  dime.  But  our 
oddest  relative  is  the  rock-oyster,  or  winter-shell, 
as  some  people  call  him. 
Figure  26  shows  you  how 
he  looks,  and  he  may  be 
found  all  along  the  coast 
of  California. 

When  his  children  are  | 
young,  they  look  like  lit- 
tle yellow-shelled  pectens, 
and  they  swim  about  and 
moor  themselves  as  we  do. 
But  after  a  while  they  grow 
weary  of  a  wandering  life, 
and  then  they  settle  down 
in  an  old  abalorie-shell  or 
a  hollow  place  in  some 

rock,  and  cement  one  of  their  shells  firmly  to  the 
new  support. 

As  time  goes  by,  they  enlarge  their  shells  on 
whatever  side  there  is  the  most  room,  and  so  when 
they  get  to  be  old,  some  are  long  and  narrow,  some 
round  and  flat,  while  others  are  cramped  or  half 
doubled  up. 

And  as  soon  as  they  settle  down  they  close  up 


70  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

the  finger-hole,  for  they  have  no  more  need  to 
spin  anchor-threads;  but  you  can  always  see  on 
the  shell  the  place  that  used  to  be  open.  You  can 
tell  their  shells,  even  if  they  are  old  and  broken, 
for  they  always  color  the  part  next  to  the  hinge 
with  a  rich  purple  that  never  fades  or  washes  out. 
But,  good  by,  now,  for  I  must  go,  or  the  tide 
will  leave  me  high  and  dry.  When  I  am  dead 
you  may  find  my  shells  washed  up  on  the  beach. 
If  you  do  find  them,  please  put  them  in  your  cab- 
inet with  a  proper  label;  and  whenever  you  look 
at  them,  think  of  me,  and  of  my  little  story  about 
the  pectens. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

vigorously  (vig'or-fts-ly),  commotion  (kftm-mo'shiin), 
escalloped  (es-kol'ftpt),  ancestors  (an'ses-terz),  colonies 
(ktfl'o-mz),  bivalves  (bfvalvz),  delicacy  (deTi-ka-sy). 


MUSSELS. 


NE  of  the  most  devoted  rock-lovers  to 
be  found  in  the  whole  ocean  is  the 
mussel.  It  seems  to  know  that 
it  must  make  itself  fast  to  a 
rock,  and  it  is  due  to  this  in- 
stinct that  the  mussel  is  able 
to  live  in  very  rough  water, 
and  to  safely  keep  house  where 

many   other   mollusks   would    shortly    lose   their 

lives. 

The  common  mussel  of   the  Pacific  coast  has 

been  known  for  a  long  time.     As  early  as  1789, 

Captain   George  Dixon  wrote    home  to  England 

that  he  had  found  on  our  northern  coast  a  kind  of 

mussel  very  much  larger 

than  those  of  Europe.     He 

wrote   that   he   had    seen 

one    shell    that   was    nine 

and    one    half    inches   in 

length;  and  he  added  that 

the  natives  sharpened  these 

shells  to  a  fine  point  and 


REFERENCE    TOPICS. 

Tools  made  from  shells. 
Early     voyages    to    this 

coast. 
Epidermis. 

Structure  of  wharves. 
How      creatures       bore 

holes. 


71 


72 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


used  them  for  the  heads  of  their  harpoons  and 
fish-spears. 

'(The  shells  are  wrinkled,"  wrote  Captain  Dixon, 
and  if  you  will  notice  Figure  27,  you  will  see  some 
of  the  wrinkles  of  which  he  speaks.  This  mussel 
is  very  abundant  in  rocky  places  up  and  down  the 
coast.  The  picture  represents  a  common-sized 
shell,  but  in  places  where  they  are  not  often  mo- 
lested, they  glow  much  larger.  The  color  of  the 
shell  is  a  rich  bluish  purple,  sometimes  mixed 

with  white  and  brown. 
When  they  are  polished, 
some  of  them  are  very 
beautiful. 

Like  all  of  the  bivalve 
mollusks)  tho  young  mus- 
sels are  sent  out  into  the 
ocean  as  tiny  swimming 
things  that  would  soon 
perish  if  they  did  not 
quickly  find  a  place  of 
refuge.  They  find  this 
most  commonly  on  the 
face  of  a  rock,  for  they 
have  a  wonderful  power 
of  spinning  a  set  of  strong, 
horny  threads,  called  a 


CAPTAIN  GEORGE  DIXON  was 
the  commander  of  a  vessel 
named  the  Queen  Charlotte. 
Captain  Portlock  command- 
ed a  larger  vessel,  called  the 
King  George.  These  two  ves- 
sels were  sent  out  from  Eng- 
land in  the  year  1785,  to  ex- 
plore the  northwest  coast  of 
America  and  establish  trade 
relations  with  the  natives. 
The  scheme  was  very  success- 
iul,  and  large  quantities  of 
fine  furs  were  purchased  by 
these  captains,  which  they 
took  to  China  and  sold  at 
a  great  profit.  The  ves- 
sels touched  several  times  at 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  which 
had  been  discovered  a  few 
years  before  by  Captain 
Cook.  After  sailing  round 
the  world,  they  returned  to 
England  in  1788.  An  ac- 
count of  the  voyage  was 
published  in  1789. 


MUSSELS. 


73 


byssus,  and    fastening   themselves   firmly  to  the 
solid  support. 

And  so  you  can  often  find  the  side  of  a  ledge 
that  faces  the  sea  almost  covered  with  mussel- 
shells,  set  as  closely  as  they  can  lie,  and  all  so 
firmly  anchored  by  the  horny  threads  that  you 
can  hardly  pull  off  one  shell  at  a  time. 

When  the  tide  comes  in,  you  can  see  why  they 
need  these  strong  anchor-chains,  for  the  waves 
will  sweep  up  and  down  the  face  of  the  ledge, 
washing  away  everything  that 
is  not  fastened  in  the  securest 
manner. 

But  this  dashing  of  the 
waves  is  just  what  the  mussels 
enjoy.  They  know  that  they 
cannot  be  torn  off;  so  they  just 
open  their  shells  and  breathe 
in  the  refreshing  salt  foam, 
which  purifies  their  sluggish 
blood  and  brings  to  their 
mouths  an  abundance  of  food. 
What  care  they  for  the  howl  of 
the  tempest  or  the  dash  of  the 
breakers?  They  have  "  built 
their  house  upon  a  rock,"  and 
the  storm  cannot  harm  them.  Figure  27. 


74  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

If  you  examine  the  organs  of  a  mussel,  you  will 
find  that  the  flesh  is  of  a  bright  orange  color. 
There  are  four  ffills,  two  on  each  side,  looking  like 
delicate  ribbons.  These  gills  are  the  organs  by 
which  it  breathes,  and  they  also  help  gather  its 
food.  The  outside  of  the  shell  is  covered  with  a 
horny  skin,  brown  or  black  in  color;  this  is  apt 


Figure  28. 

to  peel  off  from  the  older  parts  of  the  shell,  show- 
ing the  purple  and  white  beneath. 

Mussels  are  sometimes  gathered  by  men  for  food, 
and  they  make  excellent  bait  for  fishing.  It  some- 
times happens,  however,  that  their  flesh  seems  to  be 
poisonous  to  men,  and  this  fact  should  make  one 
careful  about  eating  too  many,  until  they  have  been 
tested.  At  most  times  they  have  a  delicious  flavor. 

Besides  the  common  mussel,  there  are  several 
others  which  have  similar  habits.  One  of  these 
lives  in  San  Francisco  Bay,  and  attaches  itself 
to  the  piles  which  support  the  wharves.  Its 
shells  are  small  and  smooth.  Another  kind  is 
known  as  the  Horse-mussel.  U3ne  of  these  is 


\  .        .       Figure  29. 


MUSSELS.  75 

shown  in  Figure  28.  J  The  shell  is  thin  and  delicate, 
and  (you  notice) that  the  umba.  or  shoulder,  is  not 
quite  at  one  end,  as  in  the  true  mussel. 
/Figure  29  shows  the  shape  of)another 
small  mussel,  which  sometimes  lives  un- 
der stones jf'  Its  shell  is  full  of  wrinkles. 
But  the  oddest  of  the  whole  family  of 
mussels  is  th£  Pea-pod  Shell/shown  in 
Figure  30.y  This  mussel  is  not  content 
with  fastening  itself  by  threads,  but  it  also  bores 
a  deep  hole  into  the  very  rock,  creeping  inside  as 
it  grows,  and  leaving  only  a  little  opening  for  the 
water  to  come  and  go. 

As  the  shell  grows  larger,    the  creature  bores 
deeper,  and  thus  it  passes  its  life  safely,  though 

how  little 
it     knows 
(  of  what  is 

re  80.  going       Qn 

in  the  great  world !    Are  you  not  thankful  that  you 
are  not  a  mussel? 

BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

byssus  (bis'-sus).     A  group  of  threads  which  hold  a  shell  to  a 

rock. 

securest  (se-kur'est).     In  the  safest  and  surest  manner. 
delicious  (de-lish'us).     Having  a  fine  flavor. 
harpoon  (har-pobn').     A  spear  to  which  a  cord  is  attached. 

It  is  used  for  catching  whales  and  seals. 


THE    SEA-SHELL'S   ANSWER. 


I. 


OSING  me  a  song,  lovely  child  of  the  sea, 
9  For  my  heart  seeks  to  fathom  thy  deep  mystery 
And  I  long  for  the  story  thy  cold  lips  could  tell 
Of  the  forces  which  made  thee  a  beautiful  shell. 


II. 

O,  sing  of  the  life  that  fashioned   thy 

form 
With  such  wonderful   grace,   and  with 

colors  so  warm 
Has  dyed  thy  pure  marbles,  that  radiant 

they  shine, 
Like  imprisoned   sunbeams ;    say,    was 

that  life  thine? 


III. 

Did  thy  frail  mollusk  know,  as  he  fash- 
ioned his  cell, 

He  was  building  a  palace  within  which 
to  dwell? 

Did  his  cold  heart  beat  quicker  as  each 
added  line 

Made  thy  beauty  more  perfect?  Was 
his  joy  like  mine? 

76 


Figure  31. 


THE  SEA-SHELL'S  ANSWER.  77 


IV. 

Then  the  fair  shell  replied  :  Long  ago  it  was  said 

That  the  skeptic  would  doubt  though  one  rose  from  the  dead. 

Your  questions  are  right,  and  the  answers  are  plain, 

But  approach  me  with  faith,  or  your  search  will  be  vain. 


V. 

Seek  for  what  is  revealed,  nor  with  less  be  content ; 
For  -with  every  fair  form  a  true  message  is  sent. 
Could  the  dull  mollusk  see  what  to  you  is  so  plain? 
Or  could  beautiful  lines  bring  to  him  aught  of  gain? 

VI. 

Lo,  a  Power  divine  in  all  nature  is  found ; 

A  Power  omniscient,  unfailing,  profound  ; 

A  great  Heart,  that  loves  beauty,  and  order,  and  light, 

In  the  flowers,  in  the  shells,  in  the  stars  of  the  night. 

VII. 

And  this  Power  divine,  this  Heart  wondrous  kind, 

Bids  us  work  out  a  message  to  each  human  mind. 

So  we  build  as  He  guides  us  ;  and  happy  is  he 

Who  can  read  God's  great  thoughts  in  the  shells  of  the  sea. 


FRESH-WATER   MOLLUSKS. 


JJPPOSE  we  take  a  summer  ride  to- 
gether and  visit  the  mountains.  You 
can  leave  the  great  city  when  the  sun 
is  getting  low  in  the  west,  and  cross 
the  bay  in  a  ferry-boat.  I  wrill  join 
you  at  Oakland  pier,  where  the  Ore- 
gon express  train  stands  waiting,  with  its  great 
engine  puffing  and  blowing  like  an  uneasy  giant. 
We  show  our  tickets  and  take  our  place  in  the 
proper  car;  the  bell  rings,  and  we  are  off. 

We  fly  through  Berkeley,  leaving  the  groups  of 
colleges  on  the  right,  follow  up  the  east  coast  of 
the  bay,  and  at  Port  Costa  our  train  is  loaded 
upon  the  great  boat  and 
ferried  over  to  Benicia. 

It  is  time  to  go  to  bed 
now,  so  we  prepare  to  spend 
the  night.  We  travel  two 
miles  while  undressing,  an- 
other mile  while  we  are  get- 
ting settled  in  our  berths; 
but  in  a  space  of  three 

78 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Great  ferry-boats. 
Sleeping-cars. 
Mount  Shasta. 
Glaciers. 

Rivers  come  from  moun- 
tains. 

Spare  the  forests. 
Pearl  buttons. 
Summer  vacations. 


FRESH-WATER    MOLLUSKS.  79 

miles  more' we  are  sound  asleep,  and  dreaming  of 
bells  and  whistles  and  other  things  that  make  a 
big  noise. 

At   Sacramento    our    train    stops,   and   as    we 
sleepily  glance   out  of  the  window  we  see 
electric  lights  and  loads  of  trunks,  and  hear 
the  watchman  strike  the  wheels  of  our  car 
to  tell  whether  they  are  sound  or  cracked. 

• 

Then  we  settle  back  and  feel  so  sleepy  that 

we  care  but  little  about  the  other  attractions  of 

Sacramento. 

Pretty  soon  we  know  that  we  are  moving  again; 
but  that  is  all  we  do  know  till  we  rouse  with  a 
feeling  that  it  must  be  near  morning.  We  look 
out  of  the  window,  rising  upon  one  elbow  to  do  so, 
and  we  find  that  it  is  already  quite  light,  and  that 
we  are  rapidly  passing  by  bushes,  and  rocks, 
arid  grain-fields;  and  in  a  little  while  our 
train  stops  at  Redding. 

We  hastily  dress,  take  a  sniff  of  fresh  air, 
and  are  off  again.     And  now  what  a  beau- 
tiful ride  is  before  us.     We  are  just  enter- 
Fig.  33.  ing  the  upper  valley  of  the   Sacramento 
River,  and  all  the  way  is  full  of  interest.    We  have 
left  the  broad  plains,  and  now  the  mountains  begin 
to  close  in  around  us. 

The  river,  that,  farther  down,  was  wide  and  still, 


80  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS, 

is  here  a  rushing  stream,  hurrying  along  over 
black  rocks,  making  here  a  cascade  and  there  a 
sand-bar,  and  playing  hide-and-seek  with  the 
railroad  as  it  dodges  first  to  the  right  side  of  the 
track  and  then  to  the  left. 

Beside  the  water  grow  the  willows,  and  the 
pink  azalias,  and  the  sweet  syringas.  On  every 
little  island  and  all  along  the  banks  are  the  broad- 
leaved  saxifrages,  giving  the  river  a  tropical  as- 
pect. In  the  still  pools  we  sometimes  think  we 
see  a  big  speckled  trout. 

On  and  on  we  go,  our  puffing  engine  turning 
this  way  and  that,  to  avoid  a  hill  on  one  side  and 
to  cross  a  bridge  on  the  other.  As  we  look  ahead 
as  far  as  possible,  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  some- 
thing wonderfully  white  and  wonderfully  large, 
like  a  great  cloud  in  the  sky. 

Was  it  a  cloud,  we  wonder;  for  it  could  not 
have  been  —  for  surely  we  are  not  near  Shasta 
yet.  But  it  was  Shasta,  all  the  same;  and  as  we  go 
on,  we  see  it  again,  and  know  that  we  are  really 
nearing  that  magnificent  old  snowy  volcano. 

At  Mossbrae  Falls  the  water  from  its  melting 
snows  are  fairly  bursting  out  of  the  fern-clad 
rocks;  while  from  the  Soda  Springs  we  take  a 
draught  of  a  delicious  liquid  fresh  from  nature's 
laboratory. 


FRESH-WATER    MOLLUSKS.  81 

And  now  the  railroad  leaves  the  river,  for  the 
canon  is  too  deep  and  too  narrow  for  river  and 
road  both,  and  the  train  creeps  upward  over  the 
crookedest  line  in  the  country,  till  we  stop 
at  Sisson,  right  at  the  foot  of  the  grand 
old  mountain. 

It  is  almost  noon  now,  and  the  sun  is 
shining  full  on  the  great  white  fields  of 
snow   that   lie   above    the   line   of   green 
woods.      Here  we  will   stop  and    stay  for  a  few 
weeks,  and  every  day  we  shall  be  getting  better 
acquainted  with  Mount  Shasta. 

We  will  watch  it  in  the  morning,  and  at  sunset, 
and  by  moonlight.  We  will  gather  flowers  at  its 
base  and  explore  its  green  forests,  and  even  climb 
far  up  into  the  perpetual  winter  of  its  glaciers. 

Then  we  shall  begin  to  understand  that  if  there 
were  no  Shasta,  there  would  be  no  Sacramento, 
and    that   from  those   vast   fields   of 
snow  and  ice  come  the  pure  streams 
i  of  water  which  all  the  summer  long 
'flow  joyously  down   to   the   parched 

Figure  35.  valleys,  carrying  health  and  prosper- 
ity as  they  go. 

"But  what,"  you  may  ask,  "has  all  this  to  do 
with  shells?'7  In  one  sense  it  has  everything  to 
do  with  them;  for  the  melting  snows  fill  the 

W.S.R.  VOL.  8—6 


82 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


springs,  and  the  springs  fill  the  streams,  and  the 
streams  fill  the  lakes  and  the  rivers,  and  in  the 
streams  and  lakes  and  rivers  live  the 
fresh-water  mollusks  which  we  are  to 
study.  So  you  see  the  mountains  really 
give  them  their  home. 

And  some  of  them  live  very  near  the 
mountain.  About  a  mile  beyond  Sisson 
a  great  spring  bursts  out  from  the  foot 
Figure  36.  pj  a  fay  fan  which  is  itself  at  the  foot  of 
the  great  mountain.  The  water  from  this  spring 
is  as  cold  as  ice  and  as  clear  as  crystal,  and  there 
is  so  much  that  it  quickly  forms  a  beautiful  stream 
several  yards  wide. 

Great  firs  and  cedars  grow  along  its  banks,  red 
lilies  and  blue  monk's-hoods  bloom 
beside  its  waters,  while  ferns  and 
sedges  bathe  their  roots  below,  and 
grow  up  green,  fresh,  and  graceful 
above. 

And  in  such  a  beautiful  home, 
right  in  the  very  source  of  the  great 
river,  live  hundreds  of  little  black 
water  -  snails,  their  smooth  shells 
shaped  like  Figure  32,  though  many 
of  them  are  larger  than  the  picture. 


Figure  37. 

Ill  Oregon 


you  find  another  species,  with  wrinkled  shells  like 
the  one  shown  in  Figure  33., 


FRESH-WATER    MOLLUSKSo  83 

In  many  brooks  you  can  find  lively  little 
creatures  with  thin,  horn-colored  shells  like  Fig- 
ure 34.  Notice  that  the  opening  is  on  the  left 
side,  while  almost  all  shells  open  on  the  right. 


Figure  38. 

Again,  you  may  find  shells  that  are  rolled  up  in 
a  flat  coil,  like  Figure  35. 

The  name  of  these  flat  snails  is  Planorbis.  In 
some  lakes,  or  even  some  ponds,  there  are  also 
creatures  with  thin  shells  shaped  like  Figure  36 
or  Figure  37.  These  are  the  pond-snails,  called 
Limnsea,  and  they  are  found  all  over  the  world. 


84  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

But  besides  all  these  creeping  water-snails,  and 
many  others  like  them  that  I  have  not  mentioned, 
there  is  another  kind  of  mollusks  with  bivalve 
shells,  which  are  sometimes  found  living  half- 
buried  in  the  sandy  bottoms  of  rivers  and  lakes. 
They  are  often  called  "  Fresh-water  Mussels/' 
though  they  are  very  different  from  the  mussels 
of  the  sea. 

Two  species,  of  about  the  natural  size,  are 
shown  in  Figures  38  and  39.  Those  of  you  who 
live  near  a  lake  or  a  stream  may  be  able  to  find 
some  of  them,  or  perhaps  other  kinds.  I  have 
been  told  that  they  live  abundantly  in  the  Sacra- 
mento River,  after  it  leaves  the  mountains  and 
becomes  quiet. 

Most  of  their  shells  on  this  coast  are  rather  thin 
and  brittle,  on  account  of  the  lack  of  limestone  in 
our  mountains;  but  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  they 
are  very  numerous  and  strong,  and  inside  these 
"Unio"  shells  are  sometimes  found  beautiful 
pearls.  Great  numbers  of  these  shells  are  now 
gathered  and  made  into  buttons  and  other  arti- 
cles of  pearl. 

There  are  also  many  small  bivalves  living  in 
some  streams.  Some  of  their  full-grown  shells 
are  not  so  large  as  a  pea,  but  the  little  mol- 
lusks living  within  them  are  active  fellows,  and 


FRESH-WATER    MOLLUSKS.  85 

climb  the  stems  of  water-plants  with  the  greatest 
ease. 

So,  you   see,  wherever  may  be  your  home,  or 
wherever  you  go  for  your  summer  vacation,  by 


Figure  39. 

the  mountain  or  the  river  or  the  sea,  you  may 
expect  to  find  some  of  these  forms  of  life.  As 
you  study  their  habits  and  examine  their  shells, 
you  will  better  understand  what  a  wonderful  place 
is  this  old  world  in  which  we  live. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

hastily  (has'ti-ly),  azalia  (a-zal'ya),  syringa  (sir-m'ga), 
magnificent  (mag-nifi-sSnt),  delicious  (de-lish'tis),  ac- 
quainted ak-quant'ed),  perpetual  (per-pet'u'al),  monk's- 
hood  (mtinks'hood),  Planorbis  (plan-or'bis),  Ldmnaea  (Hm- 
ne'a),  saxifrage  (sax'I-fraj),  Unio  (u'm-o). 


A  GROUP  OF  SAND-DWELLERS. 


VERYBODY  knows  that  olives  grow  on 
trees,  and  that  they  are  used  for  making 
oil  and  also  for  pickling.   They 
are  small,  smooth,  oval  fruits, 


^\7  -7^-  and  are  green  at  first,  but  be- 
:  come  purple  when  they  ripen. 
But  perhaps  there  are  many 
people  who  do  not  know  that  there  are  many  ocean 
shells  that  are  also  called  Olives.  And  they  are 
called  so  because  they,  too,  are  small  and  smooth 
and  of  an  olive  shape.  As  to  their  color,  they  are 
never  green,  but  some  of  them  are  purple,  and 
almost  all  of  them  are  very  pretty. 

The  little  animal  that 
lives  in  these  shells  loves 
to  burrow  in  the  sand, — 
not  very  far  down,  but  just 
deep  enough  to  cover  the 
shell,  while  a  pipe  thrust 
up  through  the  sand  sup- 
plies the  creature  with  wa- 
ter for  its  gills. 

86 


REFERENCE    TOPICS. 


dead 


Olive-culture . 

Live     shells     and 
shells. 

Pictures  on  shells. 

Price  of  clams  In  mar- 
kets. 

Long  Beacli. 

Nature  of  drills. 

Vegetarians. 


A    GROUP    OF    SAND-DWELLERS.  87 

Sometimes  a  great  number  of  these  olives  live 
together,  and  the  bed  of  sand  will  be  quite  alive 
with  them;  but  if  you  go  again  to  the  same  place, 
you  may  find  that  they  have  all  decided  to  move; 
and  though  you  search  for  an  hour,  you  may  not 
be  able  to  find  a  single  shell. 

They  never  like  to  be  in  the  air,  and  if  you 
wish  to  find  them  at  home,  you  must  go  when 
the  tide  is  the  very  lowest,  and  then  be  prepared 
to  get  wet  while  you  are  searching  for  them. 
But  their  shells  are  so  pretty  that  you 
ought  to  get  at  least  a  few  for  your  cab- 
inet. 

The  common  California  Olive-shell, 
when  full-grown,  is  almost  the  size  of 
the  picture  (Figure  40),  and  varies  in 
color  from  almost  pure  white  to  a 

Figure  40. 

brownish  purple.  The  animal  which 
lives  within  the  shell  spreads  out  folds  of  soft, 
moist  skin,  or  mantle,  as  it  is  called,  and  covers 
the  shell  most  of  the  time,  thus  keeping  it  smooth 
and  free  from  injury.  But  when  the  mollusk  dies, 
the  shell  is  tossed  about  by  the  waves,  and  gets 
worn  and  battered. 

This  last  is  true  of  all  sea-shells,  and  it  is  easy 
to  tell  what  are  called  dead  shells  from  those 
which  were  taken  with  the  animal  still  in  them, 


88 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


because  the  former  are  more  dull   in  color  and 
more  rough  in  appearance. 

The  largest  Olive-shells  that  you  see  in  collec- 
tions and  museums  come  from  parts  of  the  ocean 
which  are  much  warmer  than  the  water  on  our 
coast.  Some  of  them  are  three  or  four  inches  long, 
and  the}?-  are  very  beautiful.  The  largest  one  has 


Figure  41. 

markings  on  it,  which  make  it  look  like  a  camp  of 
soldiers;  and  so  it  is  called  the  Tent-shell. 

In  the  sand  and  gravel  along  the  coast  you  may 
-sometimes  find  other  interesting  shells,  though 
they  seldom  live  in  groups,  like  the  olives.  One 
of  the  prettiest  is  shown  in  Figure  41,  and  is 
called  the  Red-lined  Sand-shell.  The  shells  are 
pure  white  within,  and  on  the  outside  there  are 
stripes  of  light  red,  like  the  rays  which  come  up 
from  a  fine  sunset. 


A    GROUP    OF    SAND-DWELLERS. 


89 


There  are  also  very  many  lines  of  growth. 
These  lines  are  markings,  showing  the  shape  and 
size  of  the  shell  at  all  the  stages  of  its  growth. 
You  can  see  some  of  these  lines  in  the  picture. 


Figure  42. 

The  last  one  marks  the  outline  of  the  shell;  then 
as  you  go  upward  they  are  nearly  the  same  shape, 
but  grow  smaller  and  smaller,  till  they  meet  at 
the  point  of  the  shell  which  is  called  the  umbo. 

In  this  way  the  simple  story  of  the  mollusk's 
life  is  written  on  the  outside  of  its  shell.  Some- 
times a  valve  gets  injured  while  the  mollusk  is 
alive.  If  the  damage  is  not  too  great,  he  bravely 
goes  to  work  to  repair  it,  and  since  he  works 


90 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


within,  you  can  see  on 
the  outside  just  where 
the  break  has  been 
mended. 

Another  Sand-shell 
is  shown  in  Figure  42. 
This  one  is  pure  white, 
and  has  no  red  lines 


Figure  43. 


is  very  thin,  too,  but  the  lines  of  growth  are  quite 
clearly  shown. 

There  are  many  others,  quite  similar  in  shape 


Figure  44. 


A    GROUP    OF    SAND-DWELLERS.  91 

and  habits,  but  this  book  would  be 

too  large  if  we  were  to  describe  them 

all.      I  suppose    every  one  of  these 

clams  are  good  for  food,  though  you  seldom  find 

them  in  the  markets. 

But  Figure  43  represents  one  that  is  always  in 
the  San  Francisco  markets,  where  it  is  called  the 
Hard-shelled  Clam.  Other  people  call  it  the  Car- 
pet-shell, because  it  is  thickly  set  with  little  ribs 
or  ridges,  like  a  piece  of  Brussels  carpet.  Many 
of  the  shells  also  have  pretty  patterns  painted  nat- 
urally upon  their  outer  surface.  A  great  many 
of  these  clams  are  gathered  on  the  shores  of  To- 
males  Bay;  but  they  live  all  along  the  coast. 

Figure  44  shows  another  fine  clam  which  is  sel- 
dom seen  in  San  Francisco,  but  which  may  be 
bought  in  the  Portland  markets;  while  Figure  45 
gives  you  an  idea  of  the  little  Wedge-shell,  which 
lives  so  abundantly  in  the  sand  at  Lon'g  Beach,  in 
Los  Angeles  County.  Although  it  is  so  small,  it 
is  used  for  food  in  the  following  manner. 

A  shovelful  of  the  sand  in  which  they  live  is 
put  into  a  sieve,  and  this  is  shaken  in  the  water. 
The  sand  all  washes  out  and  the  shells  are  left. 
When  enough  have  been  gathered,  they  are  again 
carefully  washed,  and  then  put  into  a  kettle  of 
boiling  water. 


92  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

In  this  way  they  are  killed  instantly,  and  the 
shells  open,  allowing  the  rich  juices  of  the  clams 
to  come  out  and  flavor  the  soup.  The  empty 
shells  settle  to  the  bottom,  and  now  a  little  sea- 
soning is  all  that  is  necessary  to  prepare  the 
delicious  soup  for  the  table. 

As  this  is  the  smallest  mollusk  that  is  eaten  on 
this  coast,  it  is  proper  that  we  should  now  pass  on 
to  the  largest  one.  Figure  46,  though  a  good-sized 
picture,  is  only  one  half  as  long  as  the  real  shell. 
We  will  call  this  creature  the  Giant  Clam,  though 


Figure  46. 


A    GROUP    OF    SAND-DWELLERS.  93 

it  has  various  names  in  the  north,  where  it  is  dug 
out  of  a  very  deep  burrow  in  the  sand  and  mud. 

If  you  wish  to  know  its  true  name,  you  can  look 
at  the  list  of  Names  of  Figures,  at  the  end  of  this 
book.  But  it  is  very  proper  to  call  it  a  giant;  for 
when  you  are  making  soup,  you  must  remember 
that  it  would  take  more  than  a  thousand  of  the 
little  Wedge-shells  to  fur- 
nish as  much  meat  as  is 
contained  in  a  single 
Giant  Clam. 

There  is  just  one  more  , 
sand-dweller  that  we  will  I 
think  of  to-day,  and  he 
is  very  different  indeed 
from  those  we  have  been 
considering.   His  picture 
is  given  in  Figure  47,  but  Figure  47. 

that  shows  only  the  shell  when  the  animal  has 
gone  inside  and  has  pulled  in  his  door,  or  opercu- 
lum,  as  it  is  called. 

The  shell  is  so  big  and  round  that  it  is  some- 
times called  the  Moon-shell,  though  its  color  is 
not  pure  white,  but  somewhat  spotted  like  the  real 
moon.  Sometimes  it  grows  to  a  size  three  or  four 
times  that  of  the  picture. 

When  the  mollusk  comes  out  of   his   shell  he 


94  WESTERN    SERIES    OP    READERS. 

takes  in  much  water,  and  swells  up  enormously. 
Then  he  burrows  along  under  the  surface  of  the 
sand,  until  he  finds  a  clam  living  there.  The 
Moon-mollusk  wishes  to  eat  that  clam,  but  the  clam 
is  not  willing  to  be  eaten,  and  so  a  strife  ensues. 

The  clam  closes  his  shells  tightly,  and  the  old 
robber  cannot  open  them,  and  so  Mr.  Clam  thinks 
he  is  safe.  Alas!  do  not  be  too  sure,  for  the  old 
robber  carries  a  flint  drill  on  his  tongue,  and  I 
fear  that  he  will  use  it. 

And,  surely,  he  grasps  the  poor  clam  with  his  big 
foot,  selects  a  place  on  the  clam's  shell  just  over  the 
heart,  and  begins  to  bore.  /  If  he  does  not  get  scared 
away,  he  will  stay  till  he  has  drilled  a  hole  clear 
through,  —  and  then  it  is  all  over  with  Mr.  Clam. 

Did  you  ever  find  clam-shells  with  smooth, 
round  holes  bored  in  them  near  the  umbo?  If  so, 
and  they  are  very  common,  you  may  know  that 
Mr.  Moon-shell  was  the  culprit,  and  that  the  poor 
clam  died  a  violent  death.  But  soft,  —  I  fear  that 
some  of  us  are  just  as  guilty  as  the  mollusk  of  the 
Moon-shell. 

BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

appearance  (ap-per'ans),  museum  (mu-se'Om),  inter 
esting  (m'ter-est-mg),  similar  (sim'i-lar),  Brussels  (brtis' 
selz),  umbo  (tim'bo),  operculum  (o-per'cu-ltim). 


A   WALK   ALONG    THE    SHORE. 

CYPRESS  POINT  is  a  noted  prom- 
ontory on  the  coast  of  California, 
^  situated  a  few  miles  south  of  the 
old  city  of  Monterey.  It  is  not 
far  from  the  celebrated  Carmel 
Mission,  which  was  founded  by  the  Spanish  fathers 
more  than  a  century  ago. 

The  Indians,  for  whose  spiritual  benefit  the  old 
church  was  erected,  have  nearly  all  disappeared, 
their  descendants  being  so  few  and  so  scattered 
that  they  are  rarely  seen. 

The  old  church  was  rapidly  falling  into  ruins 
until  a  few  years  ago,  when  it  was  partially  restored 
and  supplied  with  a  new 
roof,  which  will  protect  it 
for  at  least  another  cen- 
tury. But  it  stands  in  a 
hay-field,  lonely  and  de- 
serted, save  for  the  visits 
of  curious  tourists  and 
the  gathering  of  a  few 
neighbors  when  the  parish 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Missions  to  the  Indians. 

Adobe  houses. 

Early  settlement  of  Cali- 
fornia. 

"The  groves  were  God's 
first  temples." 

Ail  Arab's  turban. 

Hermit  crabs. 

Sea  and  shore. 


96  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

priest  holds  services  within  its  aged  walls  once 
a  year. 

Beneath  its  floor  rest  the  bones  of  Junipero 
Serra  and  his  associates,  who  spent  their  lives  in 
an  earnest  endeavor  to  bring  the  gospel  to  the 
degraded  heathen  on  the  west  coast  of  America. 
But  how  changed  is  the  scene  now,  and  how 
rapidly  has  the  surrounding  country  passed  from 
the  Indians  to  the  Spaniards,  and  from  the  Span- 
iards to  the  Americans. 

But  out  on  Cypress  Point  there  are  still  grow- 
ing the  same  trees  beneath  which  the  Indians 
camped  centuries  ago,  and  under  whose  branches 
the  reverend  monks  bore  the  bell  and  the  crucifix 
as  they  started  out  on  their  journey  northward  to 
establish  a  new  mission  church. 

Venerable  old  trees  are  these,  which  have  with- 
stood the  buffetings  of  the  west  winds  for  scores 
and  hundreds  of  years.  Their  trunks  are  gnarled 
and  twisted  and  severe,  but  their  tops  are  ever- 
green, though  beaten  by  the  ocean  storms  into 
floorlike  flatness. 

Some  of  them  stand  erect,  boldly  peering  out 
over  the  horizon,  as  if  anxious  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  some  friendly  ship  coming  in  from  the  far 
west;  others  crouch  like  sleeping  lions,  or  bring 
their  green  covering  down  to  the  very  ground, 
like  the  wall  of  a  tent. 


A    WALK    ALONG    THE    SHORE.  97 

A  solemn  peace  pervades  these  ancient  groves, 
and  the  light  laugh  is  instinctively  hushed  as  one 
enters  their  shady  portals.  It  is  not  a  place  for 
mirth,  much  less  for  sadness,  but  for  quiet,  for 
thoughtfulness,  and  for  peace. 

Under  these  old  trees  there  quietly  lives  a 
small  colony  of  very  interesting  snails.  We  have 
already  seen  the  picture  of  one  of  them  in  Figure 
16.  His  ancestors  were  here  long  before  mission 
times,  but  the  race  is  fewer  now  than  it  was  for- 
merly, for  the  saucy  jays  which  flutter  and  scold 
in  the  green  branches  overhead  search  out  the 
poor  snails  in  their  summer  hiding-places,  and 
break  the  pretty  shells  to  satisfy  their  gross  ap- 
petites. 

But  we  may  find  a  few  good  specimens  even 
yet,  along  with  the  broken  shells,  and  we  may 
trust  that  there  are  others  left,  too  deeply  buried 
for  birds  or  boys  to  discover  their  place  of  con- 
cealment. 

Leaving  the  silent  groves,  let  us  go  down  to  the 
beach  and  walk  along  its  margin  on  our  way 
home.  Everywhere  we  see  the  work  of  the  waves. 

Here  are  piles  of  rounded  stones  cast  up  by  the 
winter's  storms;  there  are  tangles  of  seaweed, 
which  drifted  in  at  high  tide;  beyond  is  a  long 
beach  of  smooth  sand,  where  the  waves  roll  up 

W.S.K.  VOL.  8—7 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

and  down  all  the  day  long,  and  this  stretch 
is  bounded  by  scarred  and  broken  ledges 
which  run  far  out  into  the  sea,  and  whose 
presence  may  be  known  by  the  foam  of 
Figure  48.  the  white  breakers.     Each  of  these  con- 
ditions has  its'  own  form  of  life,  and  each  seems 
ready  to  tell  us  its  particular  story. 

As  we  approach  the  water,  the  first  mollusks 
we  meet  are  the  little  Littorines,  or  Shore-shells. 
They  are  clustered  on  the  rocks,  waiting  .for  the 
returning  tide,  There  are  two  species  of 
littorines,  looking  like  Figures  48  and  49, 
only  many  of  them  are  not  so  large  as 
the  pictures  would  indicate.  They  are 
modest  little  shells,  of  a  dark  gray  color,  Flg- 49> 
like  the  rocks  on  which  they  rest,  and  they  are 
able  to  resist  thirst  arid  drought  for  a  long  time8 
as  their  shells  are  tightly  shut  by  a  close-fitting 
operculum. 

But  if  you  put  them  m  sea-water  they  quickly  re- 
vive, and  their  little  black  bodies 
go  creeping  rapidly  over  the 
rocky  surface,  and  their  rough 
tongues  rasp  off  the  green  coat- 
ing which  gathers  on  wet  stones. 
There  is  also  a  plenty  of  lim- 
pets  of  different  species,  but  these 


A    WALK    ALONG    THE    SHORE. 


99 


Figure  51. 

Red    Turbans, 


we  have    already    considered,  so 

we  pass  on  to  a  group  of  strong, 

black  shells  whose  owners   have 

met    together    on    the    sheltered 

side  of  a  big  rock.     They  are  the 

Turban-shells,  and  there  are  va- 
rious   species    of    these,    also,— 

Black   Turbans,  Brown    Turbans 

and  Blue  Turbans,  as  well  as   others  which  you 

do  not  often  find. 

The  Black  Turbans  are  by  far  the 
most  numerous.  You  see  a  picture  of 
one  in  Figure  50.  Their  shells  are 
strong  and  heavy,  enabling  them  to 
resist  the  knocking  of  the  waves.  In- 
Figure  52.  side,  they  are  beautifully  pearly,  like 

the  abalone.    The  aperture  is  closed  by  a  circular, 

horny  front  door. 

The   little  black  animals   are  vegetable-eaters, 

like  the  littorines,  and  they  as- 
sist greatly  in  keeping  the  rocks 

clean  and  fresh. 

A  little  nearer  the  water  are 

the  Brown  Turbans  (Figure  51). 

In  fact,  they  seldom  come  up  far 

from  the  lower  tide  limits,  though 

you  may  find  them  alive  in  caves          Figure  53. 


100  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

and  pools  when  the  tide  is  low.  They  are  much 
prettier  than  their  black  cousins,  but  they  are  far 
less  numerous.  The  Blue  Turbans  (Figure  52) 
are  even  more  unwilling  to  leave  the  sea;  but  still 
you  may  perhaps  find  some  live  ones  in  a  rock 
grotto,  or  clinging  to  the  long  stem  of  some  sea- 
weed. The  thin  outer  coat  of  the  shell  is  not 
blue,  but  brown,  though  when  it  is  a  little  worn, 
as  around  the  apex  of  the  shell,  the  blue  pearl  is 
seen,  and  a  little  acid  brings  it  out  very  readily. 

Although  the  living  shells  are  seldom  found, 
the  hermit  crabs  often  bring  up  the  dead  ones, 
and  you  might  imagine  by  the  motion  that  the 
real  owner  was  present. 

Out  in  the  water  live  other  mollusks  related  to 
the  Turbans;  but  their  shells  are  too  delicate  to 
be  trusted  near  the  rocks;  so  they  cling  to  the 
great  seaweeds,  and  come  up  to  the  surface  in  fine 
weather  only.  Their  shells  are  thin  and  very 
beautifully  colored.  They  are  called  Top-shells, 
and  a  picture  of  one  of  the  prettiest  is  given  in 
Figure  53. 

Figure  54  shows  a  little  Red  Turban,  which  is 
not  so  big  as  a  pea;  while  the  great  Wavy  Top- 
shell  shown  in  Figure  55  sometimes  grows 
in  southern  waters  as  large  as  a  quart 
Fig.  54.  measure. 


A    WALK    ALONG    THE    SHORE. 


101 


Figure  55. 


Figure  56  is 

the        Smooth 

Turban.    This, 

also,  is  found  in 

the  south,  and 

the  picture  rep- 
resents a  rather 

large  specimen. 

It  is  of  a  rich 

brown       color, 

with  a  curious 

green    spot    in 

the  center  of  the  whorls;  it  has  a  singular  opercu- 

lum,  made  up  of  rough  rings. 

There  are  other  Turbans  and   Tops,  some   of 

which  you  may  pick  up  as  you  walk  along  the 

beach  from  Cypress  Point  to  Pacific  Grove;  but 

whether     you 
find  these    or 
not,  you   will 
surely  see  cer- 
tain other  mol- 
lusks,     which 
i  we   will    con- 
'  sider    in    the 
next  chapter. 

Figure  56.         ^"*""          '*^ 


102  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

interesting  (m'ter-Sst-mg),  promontory  (pr5m'6n-to- 
ry),  Monterey  (mdn-ta-ra/),  descendants  (de-send'ants), 
reverend  (rev'er-end),  buffetings  (btif'fet-mgs),  in* 
stinctively  (in-stinct'iv-ly),  Littorine  (lit'to-rm),  drought 
(drout),  opereuluin  (o-per'ku-hlin),  singular  (sing'gu-ler). 


A   FEW   MORE   MOLLUSKS. 


our  last  walk  we  noticed  some 
of  the  mollusks  which  are  found 
living  upon  the  rocks.  In  many 
places  the  seaweeds  live  there 
too,  and  when  the  tide  is  out  you 
can  see  great  patches  of  olive- 
green  vegetation  almost  entirely 
covering  the  hard,  gray  rocks. 
The  name  of  the  most  common  of  these  plants 
is  Fucus,  and  of  this  there  are  several  species. 
Most  of  them  contain  little  air-sacks  near  their 
tips,  which  act  as  floats,  and  assist  in  keeping  them 
erect  when  the  water  is  over  them.  But  when  the 
tide  is  low,  you  find  them  lying  flat  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  rock,  or  hanging  limp  from  its  sides. 

These  seaweeds  are  very 
ancient  plants,  and  were 
growing  in  the  ocean  long 
before  there  were  any  trees 
upon  the  land.  They  do  a 
vast  amount  of  good,  puri- 
fying the  water  and  giving 

103 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Plants  -without  flowers. 
"Sea-cradles." 
Purple  dye. 
What  Is  varnish  £ 
Uses  of  borers. 
Our  advantages. 


104 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


Figure  57. 


food  to  numberless  ani- 
mals.   Some  of  them  are 
even  eaten  by  men,  and 
valuable   chemicals   are 
( obtained      from      their 
'  ashes. 

If  you  turn  back  some 
of  these  limp  plants,  you 
will  probably  find  sev- 
eral interesting  forms  of 
life  nestling  beneath  them,  and  among 
these  forms  will  probably  be  a  number 
of  mollusks. 

The  first  are  the 
Chitons  (ki'tons), 
some  of  which  are 
shown  in  the  il- 
lustrations. Queer 
creatures  are  these 
Chitons,  very  slow  in  their  move- 
ments, shy  in  their  habits,  and, 
withal,  perfectly  harmless.  They 
are  generally  found  clinging 
firmly  to  the  surface  of  a  rock, 
and  often  they  select  cracks  and 
crevices  for  greater  safety. 
If  you  pry  one  of  them  off  with 


Figure  58. 


Figure  59. 


A    FEW    MORE    MOLLUSKS. 


105 


the  point  of  a  knife,  you  will 
see  that  his  body  resembles 
that  of  a  limpet,  though  the 
organs  are  more  simple. 
There  is  a  mouth  at  one  end, 
a  creeping  and  holding  disk, 
and  a  muscular  mantle.  The 
poor  fellow  will  probably  curl 
himself 


up  in  a 
ball,    if 

yOU  Figure  60. 

do  not  put  him  back  into 
the  water,  and  he  may 
strain  so  hard  that  he  will 
break  some  of  his  shells. 
I  say  some  of  his  shells, 
for  he  has 
eight  of 
them,  al- 
ways eight, 
arranged 
like  the 
shingles  on 
Among  the 


Figure  61. 

the   roof  of   a  house. 

pebbles  on  the  beach,  you  can  often 

find  single  shells  which  came  from 


Figure  62. 


106 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


the  body  of  some  dead  Chiton.  They 
look  somewhat  like  a  pair  of  wings,  and 
the  large  white  ones,  like  Figure  57,  are 
often  called  Butterfly-shells. 

The  Red-lined  Chiton  (Figure  58)  is 
a  small  creature  with  very  beautiful 
shells,  while  the  Gray  Chiton  (Figure 

Figure  63.     59^    wlljch    Jg     much     larger?    has     little 

beauty,  being  of  a  dull,  ashy  color.     It  often  lives 

under  stones.     Figure  60  shows  the 

Mossy  Chiton,  which   is    so   named 

from  the  great  number  of  stiff  hairs 

on  the  border  of  its  mantle;   while 

Figure  61  shows  a  large  species  with 

very  regular  shells. 

Besides  the  Chitons,  you  will  prob- 
ably find  specimens  of  the  Purples. 

There  are  several  of   these,  also;    a 

picture  of  one  of  the  common  ones 
being  shown  in  Figure  62,  and  an- 
other in  Figure  63. 

Both  of  these  pictures  are  some- 
what too  large  for  the  common  spe- 
cimens, but  they  show  very  well  the 
shape  and  appearance  of  the  shells. 
The  Purples  are  rather  active  crea- 
tures, though  at  low  tide  you  will 
Figure  65.  probably  find  them  at  rest. 


Figure  64. 


A    FEW    MORE    MOLLUSKS. 


107 


They  feed  on  animal  matter 
instead  of  vegetable.  You  no- 
tice in  both  the  pictures  a  little 
canal,  or  open  tube,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  shell.  You  can 
see  the  same  plainly  in  Figure* 
64,  which  is  the  picture  of  an- 
other Purple.  All  the  shells 
that  have  this  canal  belong  to 
animals  that  are  carnivorous, 
while  those  that  have  round 
openings,  like  Figure  56,  be-  Figure  66. 

long  mostly  to  herb-eat- 
ing mollusks. 

Purples  are  so  called 
because  a  rich  dye  used 
to  be  obtained  from  sim- 
ilar mollusks  that  lived 
in  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.  Perhaps  you  have 
all  read  of  this  famous 
dye,  which  was  known 
as  "Tyrian  Purple." 

The  finest  Purples  of 
our    coast    live   in    the 
northern  waters,  where 
Figure  67.  some  of  them  are  very 


108  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

large  arid  beautiful.  Figure  65  shows 
one  of  their  shells.  There  are  many 
shells  quite  similar  to  the  Purples,  some 
of  which  you  may  be  fortunate  enough 
to  find. 

One  is  the  great  Frog-shell  (Figure 
66).  Another  is  Belcher's  Chorus  (Fig- 
ure 67);  and  then  there  are  many  little  ones,  like 
Figures  68,  69,  and  70.  All  of  these  have  names 
and  descriptions,  which  you  can  find  in  the 
books. 

If  you  now  leave  the  rocks  and  go  out  on 
the  sands,  you  may  pick  up  a  great  Heart- 
shell  (Figure  71).      I  used  to  find  broken  F1s- 69- 
ones  abundantly,  which  had  been  washed  up  by 
the  waves,  out  by  the  Cliff  House,  in   San  Fran- 
cisco. 

There  were  also  many  pieces  of  the  Flat  Razor- 
shell    (Figure  72).     This  is  a  thin  shell  with   a 
glossy  brown  covering  looking  like  a  coating  of 
varnish.     They  grow  abundantly  on  the  coast  of 
Oregon,  and  are  the  most  highly  esteemed 
of  all  of  our  clams  for  a  delicious  chowder. 
Captain  Dixon  wrote  in  1789  as  follows: 
"  At  the  mouth  of  Cook's  River,  lat.  59° 
61',  are  many  species  of  shell-fish.     For  a 
Fig.  TO.   repast,  our  men  preferred  a  large  species 


A    FEW    MORE    MOLLUSKS. 


109 


of  the  Solen 
genus, which 
they  got  in 
quantity, 
and  were 
easily  dis- 
covered by 

their     SpOUt-  Figure  72. 

ing  up  water  as  the  men  walked  over  the  sands 
which  they  inhabited. " 

He  gives  a  good  picture  of  the  shell  in  his  book, 

which  was  printed 
more  than  a  century 
ago;  and  so  it  hap- 
pens that  this  is  the 
first  shell  of  our 
coast  that  was  ever 
Figure  73.  described  and  fig- 

ured by  the  original  collector.  Find 
the  place  on  your  maps  where  Cap- 
tain Dixoii's  men  dug  these  fine  Razor- 
clams  out  of  the  sands  of  the  Alaskan 
shore. 

The  last  shells  of  niollusks  that  we 
will  consider  in  this  book  are  those 
of  the  Piddocks.  They  are  bivalves, 
and  have  a  habit  of  boring  holes  into  Figure  74. 


110  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

almost  everything.  A  little  one 
called  the  Teredo  bores  into 
pieces  of  submerged  wood,  like 
the  bottoms  of  ships  and  the 
piles  on  which  wharves  and 
bridges  are  built.  They  are 
very  destructive,  and  to  protect 
the  wood  it  is  sometimes  poi- 
soned or  covered  with  sheets  of 
copper. 

But  the  common  piddocks  are 
larger  than    the  teredo,  though 
they  do  not  bore  quite  so  deep 
Figure  75.  holeg     Those  that  look  like  Fig- 

ure 73  bore  holes  into  the  stiffest  blue  clay,  from 
which  they  can  be  dug  out  by  the  use  of  a  pickax. 
Others,  like  the  shells  shown  in  Figures  74  and 
75,  attack  harder  substances,  and  even  make  their 
burrows  in  solid  rock.  Sometimes  a  reef  gets  so 
full  of  holes  that  great  pieces  are  broken  off  by 
the  waves  during  a  storm,  and  rolled  up  on  the 
beach.  You  can  find  such  pieces  at  old  Monte- 
rey, with  the  dead  shells  still  remaining  in  the 
burrows. 

When  the  creatures  begin  to  bore  they  are 
very  small,  and  as  they  go  on,  the  diameter  of  the 
burrow  must  increase,  to  allow  for  their  growth. 


A    FEW    MORE    MOLLUSKS.  Ill 

And  so  it  happens  that  a  piddock  that  has  once 
made  his  house  becomes  a  prisoner  for  life. 

But  what  does  he  care!  He  is  safe  and  quiet, 
and  he  can  always  pump  in  water  with  its  food 
and  air  for  his  daily  use,  and  with  that  he  is  con- 
tent. But  his  sphere  of  knowledge  and  activity 
is  very,  very  small.  Are  you  not  thankful  that 
yours  is  so  much  larger? 

BLACKBOARD    WOKDS. 

Fucus  (fu'ktig),  vegetation  (vej-e-ta'shtin),  ancient  (an'- 
shent),  chemicals  ( kem'i-klz),  Chiton  (  ki'tdn),  withal 
(with-aT),  carnivorous  (kar-niv'o-rtis),  Tyrian  (tir'i-an), 
chorus  (ko'rtts),  original  (o-rij'i-nal),  diameter  (di-am'e- 
ter),  piddock  (pid'ddk). 


Figure  71 


OTHER  CREATURES  WHICH  LIVE  IN  THE 

SEA. 


ESIDES  the  mollusks,  there  are  a  great 
number  of  other  creatures  in 
the  sea  which  claim  our  atten- 
tion. As  we  go  down  to  the 
beach  on  a  bright  morning, 
perhaps  the  first  living  things  which  we  notice 
are  the  birds.  Sea-birds  have  a  look  of  their  own, 
and  you  would  hardly  mistake  them  for  land-birds, 
if  you  were  to  meet  them  many  miles  inland. 

While  our  land-birds  are  mostly  fitted  for  short 
flights,  as  from  tree  to  tree,  the  sea-birds  go  wing- 
ing along  over  miles  of  waves,  and  perhaps  alight 
at  last  on  some  bare  rock,  in  the  midst  of  a  flock  of 
their  companions.  Land- 
birds  sing,  at  least  many  of 
them  do,  but  sea-birds  are 
silent,  or  utter  a  few  harsh 
cries.  Besides  this,  they  are 
all  fitted  for  swimming  or 
wading,  and  many  of  them 
for  diving  as  well. 

112 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Why  men  cannot  fly. 
The  beaks  of  birds. 
Methods  of  fishing. 
Difference  between  gills 

and  lungs. 
California     whales     and 

whale-fisheries. 


OTHER    CREATURES  WHICH   LIVE  IN  THE   SEA.       113 

The  most  common  sea-birds  about  San  Fran- 
cisco are  the  Gulls.  They  are  quite  large  birds, 
of  a  white  or  gray  color,  and  they  have  quite  long, 
naked  legs  and  a  strong  beak.  Nobody  is  allowed 
to  shoot  them  near  the  water-front,  and  in  conse- 
quence they  have  become  quite  tame,  perching 
freely  upon  the  sheds  around  the  wharves,  and 
following  the  ferry-boats  between  the  city  and  the 
Oakland  mole. 

Very  often  some  passenger  will  toss  them  bits 
of  bread  as  they  fly  beside  or  over  the  boat.  In- 
stantly there  is  a  rush  of  wings,  and  the  mouth- 
ful is  usually  caught  by  some  keen-eyed  bird 
before  it  has  had  time  to  reach  the  water.  Their 
intelligent  looks  and  graceful  motions  are  much 
appreciated  by  the  throngs  of  passengers  on  the 
ferry-boats,  and  the  birds  seem  to  understand 
their  advantage. 

Other  sea-birds  are  seen  in  the  bay,  too,  but 
none  of  them  are  so  tame  as  the  gulls.  In  winter 
there  are  many  flocks  of  Ducks,  and  frequently  a 
Diver  is  seen  thrusting  his  long,  snaky  head  out 
of  the  water,  glancing  quickly  around,  and  then 
disappearing  in  an  instant.  He  seems  more  like 
a  fish  than  a  bird,  for  you  seldom  see  him  either 
swimming  or  flying. 

Sometimes  you  see  the  Pelicans,  —  great  birds 

W.S.K.  VOL.  8—8 


A    NESTING    COLONY   OF   CORMORANTS. 


OTHER    CREATURES  WHICH   LIVE  IN  THE    SEA.        115 

with  exceedingly  long  bills,  under  which  are  hung 
bags  to  hold  the  fish  which  they  catch.  You 
would  hardly  expect  so  clumsy  a  bird  to  be  an 
expert  fisher,  but  if  you  watch  his  motions  you 
will  see  that  they  are  far  more  rapid  and  skillful 
than  you  would  suppose. 

Along  the  rocky  sea-coast  one  often  sees  a  small 
flock  of  Shags  flying  very  swiftly  in  a  line,  just 
above  the  surface  of  the  waves.  [The  shag  is 
really  a  species  of  Cormorant.;  Its  plumage  is  so 
dark  in  color  that  at  a  distance  it  appears  black, 
though  a  close  examination  shows  a  touch  of 
green.  These  birds  have  slender  bodies,  strong 
wings,  and  long,  sharp  bills.  They  are  expert 
fishers.  In  China,  young  cormorants  are  trained 
to  dive  for  fish,  and  to  bring  them  to  the  boat 
of  their  master. 

On  the  salt  marshes  one  sometimes  sees  a  lonely 
Crane  standing,  at  least  a  yard  high.  He  is  a 
great  creature,  with  naked  legs  so  long  that  when 
he  flies  they  stretch  out  behind  like  two  poles. 
On  the  marshes  and  the  beaches  you  also  see  other 
wading  birds  smaller  than  the  cranes.  To  these 
belong  the  Curlews  and  the  little  gray  Sand-pipers. 

Farther  out  at  sea,  around  the  rocky  islands 
which  lie  along  the  coast,  are  vast  numbers  of 
other  birds,  one  of  which,  the  Murre,  lays  the 


116  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

great  green  eggs  which  are  sometimes  collected 
on  the  Farallone  Islands,  and  sold  in  the  city 
markets,  like  the  eggs  of  common  fowls.  Alto- 
gether, the  sea-birds  help  very  much  to  enliven 
the  view  and  to  render  the  sea-coast  attractive)!^ 

Whenever  you  go  to  the  sea-shore,  you  know 
that  you  are  going  where  fishes  abound,  and  yet 
you  may  see  but  very  few,  as  most  of  them  keep 
well  off  the  shore  when  the  tide  is  low.  But  if 
you  are  near  a  fishing-village,  you  will  greatly 
enjoy  seeing  the  boats  come  in  and  the  catch 
brought  on  shore. 

There  will  be  Rock-cod  and  Flounder,  and 
Salmon  and  Mackerel,  besides  many  strange  forms, 
all  of  them  interesting,  and  many  of  them  very 
bright  and  shining  as  they  come  out  of  their 
native  element. 

There  are  many  creatures  which  swim  in  the 
ocean  that  are  not  fishes  at  all.  There  are  the 
Whales,  for  instance.  Here  on  the  west  coast  we 
often  have  a  chance  to  see  whales,  for  they  pass 
up  and  down  the  coast  as  the  seasons  change.  In 
Monterey  Bay  I  have  seen  many  of  these  huge 
creatures  swimming  rapidly,  and  occasionally 
coining  up  to  breathe. 

A  fish  does  not  need  to  come  up  to  breathe,  for 
he  has  gills,  over  which  the  water  passes,  and  in 


OTHER    CREATURES  WHICH   LIVE  IN  THE    SEA.       117 

which  his  blood  is  purified;  but  the  whale  has 
lungs,  and  if  he  did  not  come  up  for  air,  he  would 
drown  as  surely  as  you  would.  The  difference  is 
that  he  can  naturally  hold  his  breath  a  good  deal 
longer  than  you  can,  and  he  has  been  trained  to 
do  it  ever  since  he  was  born. 

There  are  smaller  animals  than  the  whale, 
which  behave  in  nearly  the  same  manner.  Near 
the  shore  and  in  the  bays  is  the  black  Porpoise, 
which  grows  to  a  length  of  from  three  to  six  feet. 
You  often  see  them  swimming  in  pairs,  and  fre- 
quently bobbing  up  to  the  surface  for  a  breath  of 
air. 

I  once  watched  a  pair  of  porpoises  from  the  deck 
of  a  ferry-boat.  They  would  come  up  to  breathe, 
and  immediately  sink  a  few  feet,  swimming  with 
all  their  might,  and  fairly  keeping  up  with  the 
boat.  I  suppose  they  expected  that  something 
good  would  be  thrown  overboard  from  the  cook's 
galley,  for  them  to  pick  up.  I  hope  they  were  not 
disappointed. 

Sometimes  from  the  shore  you  can  see  a  huge 
Grampus,  or  perhaps  a  whole  school  of  them 
swimming  in  a  row.  Their  habits  are  like  those 
of  the  whale  and  the  porpoise,  and  they  are  mid- 
way between  them  in  size.  All  of  these  animals 
have  smooth  skins  and  a  fish-like  form;  but  the 


118  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

seals,  which  somewhat  resemble  them  in  shape, 
have  plenty  of  hair. 

All  of  these  creatures  are  large.  In  another 
chapter  we  will  consider  some  smaller  creatures 
that  are  just  as  interesting  as  the  fishes  and  the 
whales. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

intelligent  (m-tel'li-jent),  appreciated  (ap-pre'shi-at-ed), 
pelican  (p£l'i-kan),  cormorant  (kor'mo-rant),  murre  (mur;, 
porpoise  (pdr'ptts). 


SOME   CREEPING   THINGS. 


|OME,  John  and  Augustus,  and  Mary  and 
Pauline,  get  your  hats,  and  a 
dipper  and  a  pail,  and  some 
big  fruit-jars.  The  tide  is  low 
.this  morning,  and  we  will  see 
what  is  alive  down  on  the 
wet  rocks.  Scatter  yourselves 
around,  and  let  each  one  find  something.  Then 
bring  them  all  here,  and  we  will  sit  down  and  ex- 
amine them. 

Well  done,  John;  you  are 
the  first  to  return,  and  you 
brought  what  I  expected 
would  come  first,  —  a  Star- 
fish. \Mary  comes  next, 
with  a  Ska-urchin;  Augus- 
tus has  a  Sea-anemone  at- 
tached to  a  small  stone; 
and  little  Pauline  has  her 
hand  full  of  something 
which  I  cannot  just  make 
out.  But  put  them  all 

119 


REFERENCE   TOPICS. 

It  would  be  well  for  the 
teacher  to  have  as  many 
specimens  as  possible  to  il- 
lustrate these  lessons.  If  the 
real  creatures  cannot  be  ob- 
tained, books  of  natural  his- 
tory would  be  desirable. 

Start  a  small  school  cabi- 
net, if  it  has  not  been  done 
already. 

Various  kinds  of  teeth. 
What  is  a  land-urchin? 
What  is  a  land-anemone? 
Other  radiates. 


120 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


into  jars  of  cool  salt  water  and  we  will  watch  them 
move.) 

And  now  we  will  talk  of  the  starfish.  In  the 
first  place,  he  is  not  a  fish  at  all,  but  he  surely 
looks  like  a  star;  and  men  used  to  call  almost 
everything  that  lives  in  the  water  a  fish.  It  is  not 

^   .  -^_       —^pf5,  easy  to  change  old 

§%lll   lltMllt  names,  and  star- 

i   f !A  7*1!  1   Al^HHl1.  r»  i    •  j 

nsn  is  a  word  easy 

to  pronounce. 

How       many 
points   are    there 
to  his  star? 
Five. 

Correct;  but  do 
all  starfishes  have 
five  points? 

Don't  know?  Well,  if  you  will  watch,  you  will 
find  some  little  ones  with  six  points;  and  you 
may  get  a  big,  soft  red  one,  called  a  sun-star, 
which  has  twenty  or  more.  But  five  is  the  com- 
mon number. 

Now,  what  are  these  five  points  for? 
They  are  legs,  sir. 

Are  you  sure  of  that?  Can  a  starfish  step  off  on 
these  legs?  or  can  he  swim  with  them?  Watch 
this  one  in  the  great  jar  of  salt  water.  If  they 
are  legs,  they  must  be  very  lame  ones. 


SOME    CREEPING    THINGS.  121 

No;  they  are  not  legs,  but  from  the  under  side 
of  each  of  these  points  there  are  coming  out  a 
great  number  of  little  tubes.  These  tubes,  or 
water-feet,  act  like  suckers,  and  hold  on  very 
firmly;  but  when  the  creature  wishes,  he  can 
withdraw  them.  And  by  reaching  out  new  tubes 
in  front  and  drawing  in  those  behind,  he  is  able 
to  creep  slowly,  but  very  surely,  up  the  side  of 
the  jar.  In  the  ocean,  he  can  creep  over  rocks 
or  go  where  he  pleases. 

But  what  are  the  five  points  for,  since  they  are 
not  legs? 

I  will  tell  you.  Do  you  see  the  creature's 
mouth  in  the  center  of  his  body,  on  the  under 
side? 


Yet  he  has  no  teeth,  and  so  he  cannot  crush 
his  food.  But  he  can  do  one  very  curious  thing. 
He  can  throw  his  stomach  out  of  his  mouth,  and 
digest  his  food  outside  of  his  body,  and  then  draw 
the  stomach  back  again.  I  once  saw  a  starfish 
eating  a  clam  in  that  singular  manner. 

But  what  kept  the  clam  from  slipping  away? 
-for  the  starfish  has  no  hands  to  hold  him? 

Precisely;  but  he  does  have  five  points  to  his 
star,  and  he  bends  these  points  around  the  clarn 
and  seizes  the  shell  with  the  little  suckers,  and 
then  with  his  mouth  he  can  do  what  he  pleases. 


SOME    CREEPING    THINGS.  123 

But  what  if  the  clam  will  not  open  his  shell? 

Ah,  I  cannot  tell  you  that.  I  only  know  that 
the  stomach  seems  to  have  the  power  to  make  the 
shells  open;  how,  I  do  not  know.  It  is  the  same 
way  with  oysters  as  with  clams;  and  so  the 
oyster-men  hate  the  starfishes,  and  kill  them  if 
they  catch  them  around  their  oyster-beds. 

Well,  we  have  learned  some  things;  but  there 
are  others  which  we  do  not  understand.  V 

True;  but  is  it  not  often  so,  when  we  study  the 
wonderful  objects  of  nature?  Some  time  we  will 
dissect  a  starfish,  harving  first  killed  it  by  putting 
it  in  fresh  water,  and  then  you  will  see  very  curi- 
ous organs  inside. 

We  will  take  this  one  home,  kill  it,  and  wash 
off  all  the  salt,  and  then  dry  it  for  a  few  days  in 
the  sunshine.  If  we  do  not  wash  off  the  salt,  it 
will  gather  moisture  in  damp  weather,  next  win- 
ter, and  may  spoil.  And  to-morrow,  see  if  you 
cannot  find  several  other  kinds  to  add  to  your 
collection. 

Now,  Mary,  let  us  see  your  sea-urchin. 

Why,  it  is  climbing,  too,  almost  like  the  star- 
fish, only  its  suckers  are  very  long,  and  it  has  so 
many  long  thorns  sticking  out  all  over  its  body. 

Very  true.  It  is  classed  with  the  starfish  on 
that  account,  and  they  resemble  each  other  in 


124  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

other  ways  also.  The  mouths  of  both  are  in  the 
center,  and  the  parts  of  the  body  reach  out  like 
the  spokes  of  a  wheel.  For  this  reason  they  are 
sometimes  called  Radiates. 

But  notice;  how  does  the  urchin  differ  from 
the  starfish? 

He  has  long  thorns  on  his  skin. 

Right.  They  are  called  spines,  and  very  curi- 
ous organs  they  are,  too.  They  protect  the 
animal  like  a  fence  of  bayonets,  and  they  help 
him  in  moving,  also.  What  else? 

He  has  a  hard  shell. 

That  is  true;  while  the  starfish  has  a  leathery 
skin  with  many  stony  points  set  in  it.  But  find 
an  old  sea-urchin  shell  that  is  broken,  and  notice 
the  many  pieces  of  which  the  shell  is  made  up. 
And  as  the  creature  grows,  each  of  these  pieces 
must  be  increased  in  size.  What  else? 

The  sea-urchin  seems  to  have  a  set  of  teeth. 

Good;  and  are  they  set  in  two  jaws,  like  yours? 

No;  there  are  only  five  teeth,  and  they  all  come 
together  in  a  point.  Is  n't  it  strange? 

Yes;  it  is  very  strange;  and  when  you  dissect 
a  sea-urchin  you  will  be  more  and  more  surprised 
to  see  what  a  wonderful  mouth  he  has.  For  he 
really  has  five  jaws,  with  one  tooth  in  each  jaw, 
and  as  the  teeth  wear  off,  they  grow  down  from 


"  OF  1  HE 

UNIVERSITY 


SOME    CREEPING    THINTfrPT-r  —  g8^          125 


above,  through  the  jaw,  so  as  to  always  keep  them 
just  the  right  length.  There  is  very  much  more 
about  the  sea-urchin  which  is  of  interest,  but  we 
cannot  learn  it  now. 

But  where  do  sea-urchins  live? 

Mostly  in  shallow  water,  and  especially  around 
rocks. 

And  are  there  many  kinds? 

Yes;  there  are  large  ones  and  small  ones,  round 
ones  and  flat  ones,  and  a  number  of  species  of 
each  kind.  Some  have  spines  as  thick  as  a  pen- 
cil, while  in  others  they  are  as  fine  as  hairs. 

One  thing  more:  what  do  they  eat? 

Chiefly  seaweed,  but  sometimes  dead  fishes  or 
other  animal  matter. 

Now  we  must  turn  to  Augustus  and  his  sea- 
aiiemone.  It  has  opened  in  the  jar  of  water,  but 
there  are  plenty  of  closed  ones  on  the  rocks 
around  us.  Does  it  resemble  the  starfish? 

Not  much,  only  it  has  a  mouth  in  the  center. 

But  has  it  tube-feet  to  cling  and  walk  with? 

I  cannot  see  any. 

True,  it  has  none;  and  it  is  a  much  simpler  ani- 
mal than  the  last  two.  But  what  has  it  around 
its  mouth? 

It  has  a  row  of  soft  tubes,  looking  like  the  pet- 
als of  a  flower. 


126 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


stomach. 


Right  again;  and  from  these  it  gets  its  name. 
Now  put  your  finger  down  to  its  mouth  and  hold 
it  still;  it  will  not  hurt  you. 

Why,  the  creature  is  closing  all  its  rays  round 
my  finger,  and  pulling  itself  together  into  a  little 
bunch. 

Yes;  and  if  your  finger  had  been  a  limpet  or  a 
little  crab,  it  would  have  been  pulled  inside, 
through  the  creature's  mouth,  down  into  its 
And  it  would  never  have  come  out 
alive,  either;  though  after 
a  time  the  creature  would 
have  thrown  out  the 
empty  shell. 

But    can   the    anemone 
change  its  place? 

Slightly;  but  it  gener- 
•ally  chooses  its  home  on 
a  rock,  and  stays  there 
all  its  life.  You  will  find 
beds  of  small  gray  ones  on  some  rocks,  so  close 
together  that  they  touch  one  another.  Again,  in 
deeper  water,  you  will  see  great  green  ones  living 
apart,  and,  when  open,  each  one  looks  like  a 
beautiful  flower  six  or  eight  inches  across.  Their 
tentacles,  or  rays,  are  very  sensitive,  and  quickly 
catch  any  unlucky  creature  that  comes  in  their 
way. 


Figure  77. 


SOME    CREEPING    THINGS.  127 

Can  we  keep  this  creature  when  it  is  dead? 

Only  by  putting  it  in  some  preserving  fluid, 
like  alcohol,  for  all  of  its  parts  are  soft,  and  it  has 
no  shell.  If  you  wish  to  preserve  the  sea-urchin's 
shell,  you  can  either  take  out  the  mouth  parts 
and  thoroughly  clean  the  inside,  and  then  dry 
the  shell  with  the  spines  on,  or  you  can  boil  the 
whole  shell  in  water  and  rub  off  the  spines  with 
an  old  brush.  But  what  has  Pauline? 

It  is  a  little  starfish  with  five  arms;  but  how 
fast  they  move. 

No;  it  is  not  a  starfish,  but  a  Brittle-star, 
though  the  two  are  quite  nearly  related.  See;  it 
has  a  hard,  round  body,  like  a  button,  with  a  little 
mouth  in  the  center;  and  these  five  arms  are  not 
parts  of  the  body,  as  in  the  starfish,  but  are  more 
like  little  whips,  by  which  it  gathers  in  its  food. 
If  you  disturb  it,  some  of  these  little  arms  are 
very  apt  to  break  off,  and  so  the  creature  is  called 
a  brittle-star. 

The  brittle-stars  which  live  around  the  beach 
do  not  grow  very  large,  but  there  are  many  very 
strange  and  large  ones  which  live  on  the  bottom 
of  the  ocean,  in  very  deep  water.  You  can  often 
find  small  ones  by  turning  up  stones  when  the 
tide  is  low;  for  they  do  not  live  on  the  tops  and 
sides  of  rocks,  like  the  true  starfishes.  There  is 


128  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

another  kind,  in  which  the  arms  are  very  much 
divided,  like  the  twigs  of  a  tree.  When  these 
arms  are  curled  up,  the  creature  is  called  a  Basket- 
fish. 

But  now  we  will  take  our  treasures  home  and 
come  again  some  other  day. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

radiate  (ra'di-at),  bayonets  (ba'o-nets),  anemone  (a-n6m'- 
o-ne),  resemble  (re-zem'bl),  moisture  (mois'tur),  alcohol 
(ai'ko-hol). 


ANOTHER   SEASIDE   TALK. 


ELL,  my  young  people,  we  are 
here  again,  and  you  have  brought 
a  new  lot  of  creatures  for  us  to 
examine  together.  I  sup- 
pose you  found  them  this 
morning  at  the  very  low 
tide;  is  it  not  so? 
Yes;  we  have  all  been  out  on  the  rocks,  lifting 
up  seaweeds,  and  turning  over  such  stones  as  we 
were  able  to  move.  We 
carried  a  trowel  and  a  big 
iron  spoon  with  us,  and  we 
dug  with  them,  wherever 
the  gravel  was  soft  enough 
for  us  to  do  so. 

And  did  you  find  more 
of  the  creatures  which  we 
were  studying  yesterday? 

Oyes;  there  were  dozens 
of  starfishes  lying  on  the 
seaweeds  and  the  patches 
of  eel-grass.  Some  of  them 

W.S.E.  VOL.  8—9  129 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

There  are  interesting  ob- 
jects all  around  us. 

Advantage  of  many  legs 
to  the  crab. 

Difference  b  e  t  w  e  e  n 
crabs  and  insects. 

The  crab's  eyes. 

Formalin,  or  formalde- 
hyde. 

Sallee  is  a  port  of  Mo- 
rocco. 

Pirates  of  North  Africa. 

(jiivat  cuttle-fishes. 

Strange  sea  -  creatures 
that  are  eaten  by  men. 


130  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

were  yellow  and  some  purple,  and  there  were 
small  red  ones  that  had  no  long  arms,  but  only 
five  corners.  And  we  found  white  brittle-stars 
under  the  stones,  and  a  good  many  sea-urchins, 
and  whole  beds  of  sea-anemones. 

And  one  of  us  looked  off  from  a  rock  into  deeper 
water,  and  saw  the  bottom  almost  covered  with 
big  purple  urchins  lying  with  their  mouths  all 
downward.  O,  it  is  such  fun  to  know  what 
things  are  when  you  see  them. 

Yes;  and  you  are  far  more  likely  to  see  them  if 
you  are  acquainted  with  them,  first,  for  you  know 
where  to  look  and  what  to  expect.  It  is  so  on  the 
land,  as  well  as  by  the  sea.  If  you  know  the 
flowers  and  the  trees,  and  even  the  stones,  you 
will  always  have  company,  even  if  you  are  taking 
a  solitary  walk. 

But  let  us  see  the  new  treasures  you  got  this 
morning.  Pauline,  we  will  look  at  yours  first,  to- 
day, as  you  were  last  yesterday.  What  have  you 
in  your  jar? 

I  have  two  little  Crabs,  that  I  found  eating  a 
dead  limpet.  It  was  so  funny  to  see  them  walk 
up  shyly  and  get  large  mouthfuls  with  their  big 
claws.  And  it  was  not  easy  to  catch  them,  either, 
for  they  can  run  like  spiders. 

True;    and    they    resemble    spiders    in    several 


ANOTHER    SEASIDE    TALK.  131 

ways.  What  the  spiders  and  insects  are  to  the 
land,  the  crabs  and  their  neighbors  are  to  the  sea. 
Very  few  crabs  live  on  the  land,  and  scarcely  an 
insect  lives  in  the  ocean.  How  many  legs  has  a 
crab? 

Let  me  see;  there  are  four  small  ones  and  one 
big  one  on  each  side;  so  there  are  ten  in  all. 

Yes;  and  how  many  joints  in  each  leg? 

I  can't  tell,  for  he  will  not  let  me  count  them; 
but  there  are  a  good  many,  —  at  least  five  or  six. 

Very  well;  some  time  when  you  have  a  dead 
crab  you  can  count  them  carefully.  And  notice 
then  in  which  way  the  joints  move,  —  forward  and 
back,  or  up  and  down.  But  does  each  leg  end  in 
a  spur? 

There  are  spurs  on  all  but  the  front  pair,  and 
they  have  big  pincers. 

Yes;  and  the  crab  uses  them  for  all  sorts  of 
purposes.  They  are  his  hands,  his  tools,  and  his 
weapons,  all  in  one.  But  can  you  find  his  eyes? 

Are  they  not  those  little  shining  knobs  on  two 
stalks? 

Yes;  and  the  crab  guards  them  very  carefully. 
He  has  no  eyelids,  so  when  he  is  in  danger  he 
pulls  his  eyes  under  the  edge  of  his  shell,  stalks 
and  all.  He  also  has  a  lively  pair  of  feelers,  close 
beside  his  eyes.  His  mouth  is  very  funny,  for  he 


132  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

has  quite  a  variety  of  lips  and  jaws.    He  breathes 
by  means  of  gills,  which   are   hidden  under   his 
shell.     Has  he  any  tail? 
I  am  sure  I  do  not  see  any. 

No;  for  he  carries  it  as  a  frightened  dog  carries 
his.  But  turn  him  over,  and  you  will  see  his 
"^=5r  jointed  tail,  nicely  fit- 
ting into  a  little  space 
just  the  right  size  for  it. 
I  hope  you  will  get 
acquainted  with  the 
crabs  of  our  coast;  there 
^—  ^  are  so  many  of  them, 
and  they  are  so  curious. 
There  are  the  green 
rock-crabs,  the  reddish- 
brown  kelp-crabs  that 
live  among  the  sea- 
weeds,  and  a  dozen  oth- 
ers of  various  shapes,  most  of  them  of  small  size, 
which  you  can  catch  in  various  places  along  the 
beach. 

Besides  these,  there  are  the  mud-crabs,  the  crabs 
of  the  markets,  and  some  very  curious  ones  which 
live  in  deep  water,  and  are  occasionally  caught  by 
the  fishermen. 

How  shall  we  preserve  small   crabs? — for  we 


ANOTHER    SEASIDE    TALK.  133 

cannot  boil  them  as  we  do  shells,  and  take  the 
meats  out. 

No;  but  you  can  kill  them  in  fresh  water,  and 
then  cure  them  in  dilute  "  Formalin,"  which  you 
can  get  at  the  druggist's.  Use  one  part  of  for- 
malin to  ten  parts  of  water.  You  can  then  either 
leave  them  in  this  liquid,  or  after  a  time  take  them 
out  and  dry  them.  Now,  what  has  Augustus  to 
show  us? 

I  have  a  Jelly-fish  that  had  been   left  on  the 


Figure  79. 

sands  when  the  tide  went  down.  I  thought  that 
it  was  dead,  but  it  seems  to  be  moving  in  the  jar 
of  sea-water. 

Look  at  it  carefully  and  tell  me  what  you  see. 

It  is  almost  as  clear  as  ice,  and  it  is  as  soft  as 
jelly.  It  is  shaped  like  a  bowl  turned  upside 
down.  From  the  bottom  of  the  bowl  hang  down 
four  pieces,  which  may  be  lips.  When  it  swims, 
it  quickly  makes  the  bowl  smaller,  as  one  might 
shut  an  umbrella,  and  the  motion  of  the  water 


134  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

makes  the  bowl  rise  or  go  forward.  I  can  find  no 
shell,  no  teeth,  nor  anything  solid  about  it;  but 
there  are  some  faint  purple  spots  and  lines  inside. 

Very  well;  you  are  observing  finely.  The  jellies 
are  very  strange  creatures,  and  their  bodies  are 
composed  of  but  little  besides  water.  And  yet 
they  are  very  much  alive,  have  excellent  appe- 
tites, and  some  of  them  are  very  beautiful  crea- 
tures. There  are  many  kinds,  some  of  them 
growing  to  a  great  size.  Others  are  hardly  larger 
than  peas.  They  have  a  very  curious  life  history, 
for  the  eggs  of  jelly-fishes  are  apt  to  hatch  out  into 
something  very  different  from  their  parents.  You 
will  learn  of  these  changes  when  you  study  zoology. 

One  of  the  near  neighbors  of  the  jelly-fish  is 
the  little  Sailfish,  or  Salleeman.  Sometimes  thou- 
sands of  them  are  blown  in  from  the  sea  and 
perish  on  the  beach.  When  dry,  the  sailfish 
looks  like  a  little  oval  piece  of  white  tissue-paper, 
about  two  inches  long,  while  standing  up  from 
this  is  another  clear  piece,  which  runs  across 
cornerwise,  like  a  little  sail.  When  found  fresh, 
there  are  short,  blue  fringes  hanging  from  the 
oval  piece,  and  these  are  like  the  fringes  that  you 
find  on  some  of  the  jelly-fishes. 

Well,  John,  what  have  you  brought  to-day? 

I  have  brought  the  queerest  starfish  that  I  ever 


ANOTHER    SEASIDE    TALK. 


135 


saw;  it  is  not  at  all  like  the  starfish  that  I  brought 
yesterday,  except  that  it  has  a  star  with  a  mouth 
in  the  center.  It  has  eight  arms  instead  of  five, 
and  there  is  a  big  round  knob  in  the  center,  and 
what  looks  like  a  pair  of  eyes.  And  it  is  so  lively. 
Can  it  be  a  kind  of  starfish? 

Not  at  all;  though  I  do  not 
wonder  at  your  mistake.  It  is  a 
Cuttle-fish,  or  Octopus.  It  is 
really  a  mollusk,  but  very  dif- 
ferent from  a  snail  or  a  clam. 
The  eight  arms  have  suckers, 
under  them,  and  these  arms  are 
to  seize  and  hold  the  food,  much 
like  the  points  of  a  starfish.  But 
the  cuttle  has  a  beak,  and  does 
not  have  to  turn  himself  inside 
out  when  he  eats.  Your  cuttle  Fieure  80- 

is  a  very  little  one,  but  they  have  been  found  many 
feet  in  length,  —  so  large,  in  fact,  that  a  man  would 
not  like  to  meet  one  of  them. 

A  near  relative  of  the  cuttle  is  the  Squid,  which 
has  a  long,  slender  body  with  a  fin  at  the  end. 
The  head  has  a  ring  of  tentacles  around  it,  like 
the  cuttle-fish,  arid  the  creature  has  two  staring 
eyes.  Great  numbers  of  small  squid  are  caught 
at  night  by  Chinese  fishermen.  They  go  out  on 


136 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


still  nights  with  great,  blazing  torches.  When  the 
mollusks  come  up  to  see  the  light,  they  are  dipped 
up  in  scoop-nets  and  emptied  into  the  boats. 

The  next  day  the  Chinese  lay  them  out  on 
frames  to  dry,  or  even  spread  them  on  the  ground 
and  turn  them  with  a  rake.  When  they  are  quite 
dry,  they  are  packed  in  great  bags  and  shipped 
to  China  for  food.  Now,  Mary,  you  are  the  last; 
what  have  you  to  show  us? 

0,  I  have  so  many  things.  There  are  worms 
and  sponges,  and  so  many  things  of  which  I  do 
not  know  the  names. 

Well,  well.  But  there  goes  the  bell  for  the  lec- 
ture. We  will  take  Mary's  jar  with  us,  and  this 
afternoon  we  will  sit  down  and  see  what  she  has 
collected. 

BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

formalin  (for'ma-lin),  zoology  (zo-61'o-gy),  salleemaii 
(sal'le-man),  octopus  (6k'to-pus,  or  ok-to'ptis). 


Figure  81. 


SEAWORMS,   SEAWEEDS.   AND   OTHER 
SEA-THINGS. 


ERE  we  are,  all  together  once  more. 
And  now,  Mary,  we  will  look  at 
your  wonderful  jar.  It  may  prove 
to  be  a  vase  full  of  real  treasures. 
And  first,  tell  me  why  you  put 
pieces  of  seaweed  in  the  water. 
I  have  heard  that  sea-plants  help  to  purify  the 

water  for  the  animals  that  live  in  it. 
You  are  right,  though  a 

little  piece  in  a  jar  cannot 

do  very  much  good.     But 

in  an  aquarium,  where  you 

keep  living  animals,  it  is 

necessary  to  have  a  good 

number  of  growing  plants 

to  supply  oxygen.     Please 

show  me  what  plants  you 

have  in  your  jar. 

Thank  you.  This  smooth 

green   one  looking  some- 
what  like  a  fresh  leaf  of 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

How  to  make  an  aqua- 
rium. 

Seaweed  as  food. 

Why  are  worms  so  much 
despised  ?  They  do  not 
deserve  such  treat- 
ment. 

Habits  of  earthworms. 

Life  history  of  a  barna- 
cle. 

Don't  be  a  Peltogaster ! 

What  does  ' '  herm  it ' ' 
mean? 

An  open  eye  is  better 
than  an  open  mouth. 


137 


138  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

lettuce  is  the  Ulva,  or  Green  Laver.  Some  people, 
indeed,  call  it  Sea-lettuce,  but  its  true  name  is 
Ulva.  It  is  very  bright  and  cheery,  and  in  the 
cool  water  it  grows  freely.  Very  often  pieces  get 
torn  off  by  the  waves,  and  then  it  floats  or  is 
washed  ashore,  but  it  usually  grows  attached  to  a 
rock. 

When  you  gather  it,  chip  off  a  little  piece  of 
the  stone  on  which  it  is  growing,  and  then  it  will 
have  an  anchor.  Then  put  it  in  a  jar  of  sea- 
water  and  set  it  in  the  sunshine;  perhaps  you 
will  be  able  to  see  little  bubbles  of  oxygen  gather 
on  its  surface. 

Here  is  another  plant,  looking  somewhat  like 
the  Ulva;  but  it  is  of  a  different  color. 

Yes,  and  it  is  called  Porphyra,  or  Purple  Laver. 
In  Ireland  it  is  called  sloke,  and  to  some  extent 
it  is  gathered  for  food.  It  can  be  dried  and  after- 
wards boiled.  It  is  best  when  gathered  in  winter 
or  early  spring.  It  is  not  the  only  seaweed  that 
is  eaten  by  men,  by  any  means,  and  there  are 
many  things  in  the  sea  that  we  could  eat  if  we 
were  very  hungry. 

But  now  let  us  see  the  animals.  Here  is  a  sea- 
worm.  Where  did  you  find  him,  Mary? 

I  found  him  in  the  sand,  down  between  two 
rocks.  There  seemed  to  be  some  hairs  growing 


SEAWORMS,  SEAWEEDS,  AND  OTHER  SEA-THINGS.      139 

on  the  sand,  but  when  I  touched  them  they  dis- 
appeared. I  was  frightened  at  first,  but  I  dug 
with  my  spoon  and  soon  came  to  this  worm. 
He  seems  to  be  almost  covered  with  these  hairs; 
but  they  are  alive,  and  not  like  common  hairs. 

You  are  quite  right;  only  the  creature  is  per- 
fectly harmless,  and  there  is  nothing  about  him 
to  be  afraid  of.  His  true  name  is  Cirratulus,  but 
if  you  do  not  wish  for  so  long  a  word,  we  may  call 
him  the  Hairy  Seaworm,  for  that  means  about 


Figure  82. 

the  same.  He  is  a  burrowing  worm,  and  much 
resembles  his  near  relative,  the  common  earth- 
worm of  our  gardens.  Though  they  seem  so 
lowly,  their  internal  structure  is  very  interesting. 

But  why  does  the  seaworm  have  long  hairs, 
while  the  earthworm  is  smooth? 

What  you  call  hairs  are  not  hairs  at  all,  but 
little  living  tubes,  full  of  blood.  In  fact,  they  are 
his  gills,  and  in  these  his  blood  is  purified.  The 
earthworm  does  not  need  them,  for  his  blood 
takes  oxygen  directly  from  the  air,  through  his 
soft  skin. 


140  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

Do  the  seaworms  swim? 

Most  of  them  do  not;  but  some  of  them  swim 
freely.  You  may  find  one  that  not  only  swims, 
but  that  has  a  distinct  head  also.  From  its  mouth 
project  two  little  black  jaws,  or  teeth,  working 
sidewise,  by  which  it  can  seize  its  prey.  It  is 
rather  flat,  and  swims  with  a  wavy  motion.  It 
has  no  long  gills,  which  might  hinder  its  motion. 
Its  name  is  Nereis,  which  is  not  a  hard  word  to 
remember. 

There  are  very  many  worms  in  the  sea.  One 
kind  that  you  find  under  stones  look  like  little 
brown  sacks.  They  seem  very  sluggish,  but  if 
you  put  them  in  water,  and  are  patient,  they  will 
reward  you  very  well.  Some  worms  live  in  stony 
tubes  which  they  construct;  when  they  show 
themselves,  some  of  them  are  very  beautiful.  You 
can  find  these  tubes  on  stones  and  shells,  and 
even  on  seaweeds.  But  that  is  enough  about 
worms  for  to-day.  What  else  did  you  find? 

Here  is  a  strange  shell  that  I  found  growing  on 
a  rock.  It  is  white,  but  there  are  red  stripes  on 
it,  and  it  is  shaped  somewhat  like  an  acorn. 

And  it  is  called  the  Acorn-barnacle.  When 
barnacles  are  very  young,  they  resemble  little 
shrimps,  but  they  soon  settle  down  on  a  rock, 
build  a  shell,  and  never  swim  again. 


SEAWORMS,  SEAWEEDS,  AND  OTHER  SEA-THINGS.      141 

This  shell  consists  of  five  side-pieces  which 
are  grown  together,  and  a  pair  of  movable  ones  at 
the  top,  resembling  a  duck's  beak.  When  the 
creature  is  under  water,  it  opens  this  beak,  and 
throws  out  a  scoop-net  to  gather  food.  It  is  very 
interesting  to  watch  this  curious  motion. 

Another  barnacle  has  no  side-pieces,  but  its 
beak  is  attached  to  a  long  fleshy  stem,  which  it- 


Figure  83. 

self  is  attached  at  one  end  to  a  rock  or  a  piece  of 
floating  wood.  Great  numbers  of  them  may  be 
seen  clinging  to  the  wharves,  along  with  mussels 
and  seaworms. 

Some  barnacles  seem  anxious  to  get  a  free  ride. 
They  will  select  the  back  of  a  crab  or  the  bottom 
of  a  ship,  while  one  kind  is  very  partial  to  the 
skin  of  a  whale. 

The  crab  carries    his   barnacles    about  till  he 


142  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

sheds  his  old  shell;  the  ship  sails  around,  and  is 
hindered  by  them,  till  it  can  be  put  into  a  dry- 
dock,  where  its  barnacles  can  be  scraped  off.  If 
there  is  a  river  near-by,  it  may  be  sailed  up  into 
fresh  water,  where  the  barnacles  will  die  of  their 
own  accord,  for  they  cannot  live  without  salt. 

But  the  poor  whale  cannot  escape,  and  he 
must  carry  his  unpleasant  passengers  all  over  the 
ocean.  For,  though  he  is  big  and  strong,  he  is 
very  helpless  in  some  respects.  It  is  said  that 
whales  select  a  lonely  shore,  at  certain  times  of 
the  year,  and  rub  themselves  against  the  rocks, 
to  free  their  skins  from  the  hated  barnacles.  I 
suppose  they  dislike  barnacles  as  much  as  smaller 
creatures  dislike  fleas. 

And  are  many  creatures  in  the  sea  troubled  in 
the  same  way? 

O  yes;  there  seem  to  be  many  that  are  thus 
troubled.  There  is  a  degraded  kind  of  barnacle 
that  attaches  itself  to  the  body  of  a  crab  and  gets 
all  its  nourishment  from  the  crab's  blood.  It  is 
a  very  mean  way  of  living,  but  the  barnacle  pays 
the  penalty. 

What  is  that,  pray? 

Why,  he  loses  almost  all  his  organs,  and  be- 
comes a  mere  useless  sack,  without  eyes  or  legs, 
or  even  digestive  organs.  He  does  no  good,  so 


SEAWORMS,  SEAWEEDS,  AND  OTHER  SEA-THINGS.      143 

far  as  we  know,  but  he  helps  to  destroy  a  creature 
that  is  better  than  himself. 

I  fear  there  are  some  people  in  this  world  that 
are  not  willing  to  work  for  themselves,  but  prefer 
to  get  their  living  from  others.  And  if  one  were 
to  call  such  a  person  a  Peltogaster  (which  is  the 
name  of  that  ugly  barnacle),  he  would  think  it 
was  a  hard  name;  but  I  fear  it  would  be  a  true 
one.  Whatever  you  do  in  life,  don't  be  a  Pelto- 
gaster. But  there  is  one  thing  more  in  the  jar,  is 
there  not,  Mary? 

Yes,  it  is  a  Black  Turban-shell,  and  I  thought 
it  was  empty  at  first,  but  when  I  put  it  in  water 
there  seemed  to  be  something  in  it  that  was  alive. 
See,  the  creature  has  legs;  so  I  know  that  it  is 
not  a  mollusk. 

That  is  good  reasoning,  surely;  but  let  us  see 
the  shell. 

Is  it  not  a  Black  Turban? 

Yes;  but  the  mollusk  that  made  the  shell  is 
dead,  and  a  stranger  has  taken  his  place. 

What  is  the  name  of  the  stranger,  please? 

It  is  the  Hermit  Crab,  so  called  because  he  lives 
all  alone  in  a  little  cell.  The  cell  is  anything  he 
can  find  which  fits  his  body,  but  usually  he  se- 
lects an  empty  shell. 

This  crab  does   not  have  hard  plates  all  over 


144  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

his  body,  like  the  rock-crab,  but  only  his  front  is 
thus  protected.  The  rest  of  his  body  is  soft,  and 
must  have  some  covering.  So  he  finds  an  empty 
shell  and  backs  into  it.  Then  he  has  a  pair  of 
clasps,  by  which  he  can  hold  on  very  firmly. 

When  he  is  well  settled  in  a  shell,  he  feels  very 
much  at  home,  and  he  will  even  let  you  pull  him 
in  pieces  before  he  will  leave  it.  So  it  is  of  no 
use  to  try  to  pull  him  out. 

But  he  comes  part  way  out,  of  his  own  accord. 

Yes;  he  comes  out  far  enough  to  use  his  legs, 
and  then  he  runs  around,  carrying  his  house 
with  him.  But  if  you  frighten  him  he  will  draw 
back  very  quickly,  and  will  close  up  the  opening 
of  the  shell  with  his  big,  hard  claws. 

But  what  if  he  should  grow?  Would  not  the 
shell  be  too  small  for  him  to  live  in? 

Yes;  and  then  he  would  leave  it,  when  he  had 
found  a  larger  one  to  live  in.  Sometimes  two 
crabs  will  fight  for  the  possession  of  an  empty 
shell,  u  tumbling  over  each  other,  and  flinging 
their  legs  and  claws  with  singular  energy." 

Although  the  hermit  crab  is  so  unwilling  to 
leave  his  shell,  it  is  said  that  he  can  be  forced 
to  do  so  by  dropping  him  on  the  open  arms  of  a 
sea-anemone.  The  poor  fellow  knows  that  it 
would  be  sure  death  to  remain,  so  he  hastily  leto 


SEAWORMS,  SEAWEEDS,  AND  OTHER  SEA-THINGS.      145 

go  of  the  shell,  and  scrambles  away  from  the 
dangerous  place  as  rapidly  as  possible. 

In  the  little  tide-pools  you  can  often  find  great 
numbers  of  hermit  crabs  in  their  borrowed  shells. 
Some  of  them  are  very  small,  and  live  in  shells 
not  more  than  half  an  inch  long.  It  is  very  in- 
teresting to  throw  them  some  bits  of  fresh  meat 
and  see  them  scramble  for  it. 

The  hermit  crabs  are  great  shell-hunters,  as 
you  might  suppose,  and  by  means  of  their  aid  you 
are  sometimes  able  to  obtain  the  shells  of  mol- 
lusks  that  usually  live  in  deeper  water. 

Some  people  who  see  the  crabs  in  their  shells 
think  that  they  are  the  creatures  which  made  the 
shells;  but  we  know  better,  don't  we? 

Always  keep  your  eyes  open,  and  think  about 
what  you  see.  In  this  way  you  will  gain  the  habit 
of  observing,  which  will  be  very  useful  to  you 
throughout  your  whole  life. 

BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

aquarium  (a-qua'ri-um),  Ulva  (ul'va),  Porpliyra  (por'fi- 
ra),    Cirratulus    (sir-rafu-ltis),   barnacle    (bar'na-kl),   Pel- 
togaster  (pel-to-gas'ter). 
W.S.R.  VOL.  8—10 


THE   CRABS'   TEA-PARTY. 


I. 


A  JOLLY  old  Crab  said,  one  day,  to  his  wife, 
"  My  dear,  I  'm  afraid  I  am  wasting  my  life ; 
For,  you  see,  I  keep  getting, 

Without  ever  giving, 
And  a  miserly  life 

Is  not  worth  the  living. 

So,  I  pray  you,  advise  me  how  I  should  behave ; 
For  I  wish  to  impart,  as  well  as  to  save." 


II. 


"  Mr.  Crab,"  said  his  wife,  as  she  took  a  shy  look, 
"  I  suspect  you  've  been  reading  some  new-fangled  book 
For  't  is  not  the  old  custom, 

In  our  part  of  the  sea, 
For  a  Crab  to  care  much 

Who  his  neighbors  may  be. 

If  they  're  poor,  he  cares  not,  neither  cares  if  they  're  wealthy, 
Unless  he  feels  pleased  in  a  way  men  call  stealthy. 

146 


THE  CRABS'  TEA-PARTY.  147 


III. 

"  But,  then,  if  you  do  really  wish  to  be  good, 
Of  course  I  '11  advise  you,  as  any  wife  should. 
Call  your  neighbors  together, 

And  give  them  a  tea ; 
'T  will  make  them  as  happy 

As  happy  can  be. 

And  then  make  a  speech,  and  present  to  each  guest 
Such  a  gift  as  you  think  would  please  him  the  best." 


IV. 

"  You  are  right,"  said  the  Crab ;  "  and  I  give  you  much  praise 
For  your  kindly  advice  as  to  mending  my  ways. 
We  will  have  it  to-morrow, 

A  real  five-o'clock  tea. 
Will  you  wait  on  the  table, 

Or  would  you  be  free?  " 

"  O,  I  '11  wait,"  said  his  wife ;  "  but  now  hurry  away, 
For  our  invitations  must  go  out  to-day." 


Then  off  ran  the  Crab,  as  fast  as  a  sprinter, 
And  carried  these  words  to  Octopus,  the  printer : 
"  Mr.  Crab  and  his  Wife 
Would  most  happy  be 
To  receive  you  to-morrow. 

Five.     R.  S.V.  P." 

"  And,  please,  Mr.  Printer,  will  they  be  done  soon?" 
"  They  '11  be  ready,"  said  he,  "  precisely  at  noon." 


148 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


VI. 


All  the  afternoon  long  Crab  went  spreading  the  news, 
And  wondering  if  many  would  really  refuse ; 

11  For,"  thought  he,  "  some  may  say 

That  my  previous  dealings 
Do  not  quite  agree 

With  such  kindly  feelings. 

But,  I  'm  sure,  when  a  crab  really  tries  to  do  better, 
That  no  one  should  send  him  a  cold-hearted  letter." 


VII. 


At  seven,  the  next  morning,  by  Pelican  post, 
They  received  of  acceptances  almost  a  host. 
But  some  wrote  regrets, 

And  said,  "  We  must  beg 
__^  That  you  would  excuse, 
^  For  we  have  n't  a  leg." 

"  Then  send  them  a  carriage,  poor  things,"  said  his  wife. 
11 1  '11  do  it,"  cried  Crab,  "  just  to  let  them  see  life." 


VIII. 

So  he  ordered  his  hackman,  by  name  Mr.  Shark, 
To  go  round  with  his  carriage  (a  red  Noah's  ark 
Which  a  small  boy  had  lost, 

One  day,  on  the  beach), 
A  nd  to  bring  all  the  creatures 

That  were  within  reach. 

"  And  come  back  precisely  ten  minutes  to  five." 
Mr.  S.  flapped  his  fins,  meaning,  '*  Sure  's  I  'm  alive.' 


THE  CRABS'  TEA-PARTY.  149 


At  a  quarter  to  five,  't  would  have  done  your  heart  good 
To  see  Mistress  Crab  arranging  the  food. 
There  were  halibut  steaks, 

And  Irish  moss  pies, 
And  fresh-opened  oysters, 
And  dainty  squid's  eyes. 

With  sea-lettuce  for  salad,  and  eel-grass  for  greens, 
And  toasted  sea-biscuits,  and  salted  sea-beans. 


X. 


The  soup  was  of  fish-fins  well  seasoned  with  kelp, 
With  slices  of  green  sea-cucumber  to  help. 
The  maids  laid  the  dishes 

Of  blue  mussel-shell, 
And  the  fair  mistress  smiled 

And  said,  "  All  is  well." 

Then  she  hurried  away  to  welcome  the  guests, 
And  to  bid  them  be  free  to  make  their  requests. 


XI. 

Then  old  Mr.  Crab  shook  them  each  by  the  toe, — 
For  that  is  polite  in  Crab  country,  you  know,  — 
And  said  he  was  pleased 

In  this  simple  way 
To  impart  some  of  the  pleasure 

Which  he  felt  that  day. 

Then  he  offered  his  arm  to  Miss  Flat  Razor-shell, 
Who,  of  all  the  fair  guests,  was  voted  the  belle. 


150  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


XII. 

Thus  they  marched  to  the  dining-room,  which,  by  the  way, 
Was  a  lovely  broad  rock  in  a  snug  little  bay ; 
And  they  sat  down  by  twos, 

With  old  Crab  at  the  head, 
WThile  his  wife,  at  the  foot, 
Was  blushing  quite  red, 

For  her  partner,  young  Lobster,  was  praising  her  beauty, 
And  saying  he  really  was  doing  his  duty. 


XIII. 

There  were  Limpet  and  Shrimp  sitting  snugly  together, 
While  Flounder  and  Toadfish  looked  fine  as  a  feather ; 
And  prickly  Sea-urchin 

And  purple  Starfish 
Were  lovingly  eating 

Out  of  one  dish; 

And  a  great  Abalone  was  sharing  his  plate 
With  a  delicate  Jelly-fish,  who  was  his  mate. 


XIV. 

Thus  they  chatted  and  feasted  until  it  was  time 
For  them  all  to  depart :  so  I  '11  finish  my  rhyme. 
And  when  Mr.  Crab  said, 

"  Now,  each  choose  a  p resent, " 
They  cried  with  one  voice, 

"  We  have  had  such  a  pleasant 

And  sociable  time,  that  our  only  request 
Is,  that  you  and  our  hostess  may  ever  be 
blest." 


SOME   OTHER   LITTLE    SEA-CREATURES. 


general  term  "  seaweed  "  is  made 
to  include  a  great  number  of 
living  things  which  differ 
widely  from  one  another.  In 
the  first  place,  it  seems  hardly 
proper  to  call  any  of  them 
weeds,  for  by  a  weed  we  com- 
monly mean  a  troublesome  plant  which  grows 

where  it  should  not. 

The  sea-plants  are  neither  troublesome  nor  out 

of  place;  so  when  we  speak  of  them  as  weeds,  we 

use    that  word    simply  to 

mean     plant-life,    without 

any  thought  of   slight  or 

reproach. 

And    yet    some    things 

are    classed     among     the 

seaweeds    which    are    not 

plants  at  all,  but  are  really 

animals.    We  surely  ought 

to  distinguish  such  as  these 

from  true  sea-mosses. 

151 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

The  microscope  and  its 
uses. 

Alternation  of  genera- 
tions. 

Corals  and  coral  islands. 

Precious  coral. 

Gathering  and  prepar- 
ing of  common  sponges. 

Why  use  ' '  new  bottles' '  ? 

Means  of  defense  for  the 
various  animals  of  the 


152  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  notice  how  closely  some 
animal  forms  resemble  the  vegetable  growths 
which  are  found  near  them.  We  see  it  on  the 
land,  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the  "  walking- 
sticks,"  which  look  so  much  like  the  twigs  of  the 
trees  on  which  they  live.  But  more  examples  are 
found  in  the  sea. 

The  most  beautiful  of  our  Pacific  Hydroids  — 
for  that  is  the  name  of  these  animals  that  resem- 
ble plants  —  is  the  delicate  Feather-moss,  a  picture 
of  which  is  shown  in  the  engraving.  It  grows  in 
tufts  attached  to  the  rock,  and  pieces  are  often 
torn  off  by  storms  and  thrown  up  on  the  beach 
with  the  sea-mosses.  This  feather-moss  is  often 
dried  and  used  with  other  mosses  in  making 
wreaths  and  pretty  sea-pictures. 

But  if  you  examine  it  carefully  with  a  micro- 
iscope,  you  will  see  that  the  feather  is  only  a 
framework,  and  that  in  its  edges  are  hundreds  of 
tiny  cups.  Each  of  these  cups  once  contained  a 
little  animal,  called  a  polyp,  with  arms  and  mouth 
•somewhat  like  those  of  a  sea-anemone. 

All  of  these  little  polyps  are  connected,  and  to- 
gether they  secrete  the  horny  material  which 
takes  the  form  of  a  feather.  Old  polyps  may  die 
jnear  the  bottom  and  new  ones  grow  near  the  tips. 

If  you  watch  carefully,  you  may  find  several 


SOME    OTHER   LITTLE    SEA-CREATURES.          153 

other  forms  of  these  plant-like  hydroids.  Some 
you  may  find  growing  on  old  shells,  looking  like 
little,  stiff,  brown  grasses  an  inch  or  two  in  height. 
Others  are  quite  long  and  slender,  like  threads, 
and  they  have  numerous  branches. 

But  the  test  for  them  all 
is  the  microscope,  which 
need  not  be  more  than  a 
pocket-lens.  All  of  the 
true  hydroids  have  little 
cups  on  their  sides,  look- 
ing sometimes  like  fine 
saw-teeth.  And  if  you  get 
a  live  specimen  and  put  it 
in  a  dish  of  sea-water,  you 
may  be  able  to  see  the  little 
polyps  unfold  their  pretty 
arms,  like  the  opening  of  a 
flower.  But  they  are  very 
shy,  and  at  the  least  fright 
they  draw  back  into  their 
sheltering  home. 

There  are  very  queer 
stories  told  us  about  these 
hydroids  by  men  who  have 
carefully  studied  their  life- 
history.  They  seem  to  be  Figure  84. 


154  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

closely  related  to  the  jelly-fishes,  as  if  one  came 
from  the  other;  but  just  which  is  the  parent  and 
which  is  the  child,  I  will  not  attempt  to  say. 

There  are  plenty  of  things  left  in  the  sea  yet, 
which  are  waiting  for  more  careful  study.  Per- 
haps some  of  you  will  help  read  the  puzzles. 

Large  Corals  require  warmer  water  than  that 
which  bathes  our  coast,  and  so  we  have  no  reefs 
and  no  coral  islands  such  as  those  which  are  so 
numerous  off  the  coast  of  Florida  and  through- 
out the  tropical  parts  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

But  we  have  true  corals  on  our  coast,  most  of 
them  no  larger  than  a  lady's  thimble.  There  is 
a  very  pretty  red  variety  which  you  sometimes 
find  growing  in  a  rock  grotto  when  the  tide  is  out. 

It  looks  like  a  little  lump  of  red  jelly,  but  when 
you  touch  it,  the  animal  shrinks  down ,  leaving  a  lit- 
tle hard,  red,  stony  case,  no  bigger,  perhaps,  than  a 
pea.  This  case  is  made  up  of  many  blades  of 
limestone  set  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel. 

If  you  chip  off  a  piece  of  the  stone  on  which  the 
creature  is  growing,  so  as  not  to  injure  him,  and 
put  him  in  water,  you  may  be  able  to  see  him 
come  out  of  his  stony  home  and  open  his  arms, 
like  his  near  relative,  the  sea-anemone. 

In  the  same  places  you  will  be  still  more  likely 
to  find  Sponges;  though  our  sponges,  like  our 


SOME    OTHER  LITTLE    SEA-CREATURES.          155 

corals,  never  grow  very  large.  The  common 
forms  may  be  found  in  sheltered  places,  looking 
like  patches  of  velvet  growing  on  the  surface  of 
the  rock.  Sometimes  this  velvet  is  bright  red, 
and  sometimes  purple  or  yellow. 

The  patches  will  vary  in  size,  some  of  them 
being  larger  than  your  two  hands.  The  velvet 
is  generally  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in 
thickness,  and  there  are  numerous  holes  in  its 
surface,  which  are  the  breathing-pores  for  the 
sponge  animals. 

Sometimes  you  will  find  larger  pieces  of  dead 
sponge  washed  up  on  the  beach  with  the  sea- 
weeds. These  are  brown  in  color,  or  may  be 
bleached  almost  white,  and  are  of  a  fibrous  nature, 
but  not  very  tough.  There  are  other  forms  of 
sponge  in  the  sea,  waiting  for  you  to  examine 
their  wonderful  structure. 

In  the  rock  grottoes,  where  we  find  the  corals 
and  sponges,  are  many  other  strange  forms  of 
life.  One  of  the  most  common  forms,  as  well  as 
one  of  the  most  difficult  to  understand,  is  that  of 
the  Tunicates,  or  Ascidiaiis. 

Both  of  these  names  are  rather  long,  though 
they  each  have  their  meaning;  the  first  referring 
to  a  tunic,  and  the  second  to  a  bag,  or  sack.  In 
the  Bible  we  read  that  unew  wine  must  be  put 


156  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

into  new  bottles."  The  Greek  word  for  bottle, 
from  which  one  name  of  these  creatures  is  de- 
rived, means  a  leather  bag;  for  wine  was  not 
kept  in  glass  in  Bible  times,  but  in  skins.  So 
we  may  call  these  creatures,  Sea-bottles. 

Some  of  the  sea-bottles  are  single,  and  look  like 
a  sack  with  two  mouths,  —  one  for  the  water  to  go 
in  and  the  other  for  it  to  come  out.  But  those 
most  common  on  our  rocks  are  compound,  great 
numbers  of  them  being  attached  together.  They 
form  a  firm,  leathery  coating,  of  a  gray  or  yellow 
color,  which  may  be  as  thick  as  your  hand.  Its 
edges  are  rounded,  and  you  can  see  that  it  con- 
tains many  little  spaces  for  water. 

Others  look  like  flattened  tubes,  an  inch  or  two 
long,  and  as  large  around  as  a  pencil.  They  are 
almost  transparent,  but  within  their  bodies  you 
can  see  a  bent  pink  thread,  which  gives  them  an 
odd  appearance.  When  the  tide  is  out,  they  hang 
from  the  rocks  like  living  fringes. 

And  when  the  tide  is  low  you  may  find  Sea- 
slugs  in  little  pools  or  on  the  seaweeds.  These 
are  real  mollusks,  which  never  have  shells.  Some 
of  them  may  be  as  large  as  your  finger,  while 
others  are  no  bigger  than  a  steel  pen. 

They  are  very  soft  to  the  touch,  and  their 
mantles  are  often  beautifully  colored,  some  being 


SOME    OTHER    LITTLE    SEA-CREATURES.          157 

lemon-yellow,  others  white  with  red  spots,  and 
others  a  beautiful  blue  with  brown  trimmings. 
When  put  into  water  they  expand  their  gills  and 
ruffles,  and  show  their  beauty  to  great  advantage. 

Sometimes  you  can  find  them  strangely  creep- 
ing on  the  surface  of  the  water,  with  their  bodies 
hanging  downward,  so  that  they  really  are  walk- 
ing 011  air. 

These  are  some  of  the  most  common  creatures 
that  you  will  find  in  the  sea.  But  you  may  ex- 
pect also  to  find  many  others  that  are  not  men- 
tioned in  this  book.  Remember  that  each 
creature  must  have  its  own  means  of  getting  food 
and  breath  and  of  defending  itself  from  its  ene- 
mies. In  each  case,  try  to  find  out  what  these 
are. 

BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

Hyclroid  (hi'droid),  Tunicate  (tu'm-kat),  Ascidiaii  (as- 
sid'i-an),  troublesome  (trub'1-sum),  polyp  (p6l'ip),  trans- 
parent (trans-par'ent),  leathery  (leth'er-y)6 


HOW   SEA-BIEDS   KEEP   HOUSE. 


f 


[F  you  climb  one  of  the  hills  about  San  Fran- 
cisco or  Oakland  on  a  very  clear 
day,  you  can  see  the  ocean  stretch- 
ing out  into  the  far  west.  Perhaps 
you  will  also  see  a  ship  just  coming 
in  from  China,  or  a  steamer  just 
leaving  for  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
How  small  the  vessels  look,  —  like 
little  specks  on  the  surface  of  the 
great  salt  sea. 

Probably  there  are  plenty  of  birds  flying  around 
the  ships,  but  they  are  so  far  away  that  you  can- 
not possibly  see  them.  But  if  you  look  closely 
beyond  the  ships,  and  if  there  is  no  fog,  you  can 
see  two  small  islands  which  seem  to  rise  up  out 
of  the  water,  just  where 
the  sea  and  sky  come  to- 
gether. 

These  small  islands  are 
called  the  Farallones,  and 
they  are  the  home  of  a  few 
men  and  their  families, 

158 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Tlie  horizon. 
Ownership  of  islands. 
What  are  rooks? 
Lighthouses. 
Xestiiig  of  other  birds. 
44 Home,  sweet  home/' 


u  i 


HOW    SEA-BIRDS    KEEPXJJ.OU.SE.  159 


one  mule,  some  wild  rabbits,  and  thousands  of 
sea-birds. 

The  men  tend  the  lamps  of  the  lighthouse, 
which  stands  on  the  top  of  the  largest  island,  the 
mule  carries  oil  and  provisions  from  the  boats  to 
the  houses,  the  rabbits  eat  a  coarse  weed  which 
grows  among  the  rocks,  and  the  birds  keep  house 
and  raise  their  young  ones. 

Their  housekeeping  is  not  just  what  we  would 
expect,  for  many  of  them  do  not  take  the  trouble 
even  to  build  a  nest.  Others  build  very  slightly, 
of  dry  weeds  and  sea-mosses,  which  they  must 
carefully  guard,  lest  they  be  stolen  by  other  birds 
who  also  wish  to  set  up  housekeeping. 

The  Murres  are  the  most  numerous  birds  on 
the  islands,  and  they  are  the  ones  which  make 
110  nest  at  all.  The  mother  murre  lays  one  very 
large  green-shelled  egg  on  the  bare  rock,  and  at 


SOUTH    FARALLOXE   ISLAND. 


160 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


once  proceeds  to  sit  upon  it  closely,  lest  it  should 
be  stolen,  instead  of  the  nest. 

A  few  years  ago  great  numbers  of  murre's  eggs 
were  gathered  on  these  islands  every  summer,  and 


THE    F. \RAI.I.OXR    MULE. 


sold  in  the  markets  at  about  the  same  price  as  hen's 
eggs.  But  boiled  eggs  never  hatch,  and  when  it 
was  found  that  the  number  of  birds  was  decreasing, 
the  gathering  of  eggs  was  stopped  by  government 
officers,  and  now  there  are  plenty  of  young  murres. 


HOW    SEA-BIRDS    KEEP    HOUSE. 


161 


But  sea-gulls  abound  on  the  Farailones,  as  well 
as  murres,  and  the  gulls  refuse  to  obey  the  law 
not  to  steal  eggs.  If  the  mother  murre  leaves  her 
egg  even  for  a  minute,  a  gull  pounces  down  and 


BABY   GULL   IN    NEST. 


seizes  it  in  his  beak.  The  gull  knows  how  to 
break  an  egg  as  well  as  you  do;  so  he  flies  up  a 
little  way  and  drops  the  egg  on  a  stone.  The 


W.S.R.  VOL.  8—11 


162 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 


thick    shell    breaks,  and  at   once  Mr.  Gull 

swoops  down  and  be- 
gins to  eat  the  rich 
contents. 

The  murres  crowd 
together  in  their  rook- 
eries, as  their  house- 
keeping grounds  are 
called,  and  should  a 
be  fired,  a  great 
cloud  of  birds  will 
rise  up  from  the  rock, 
leaving  their  eggs 
scarcely  a  foot  apart 
Figure  85.  ,  upon  its  bare  surface. 

The  gulls  build  a  slight  nest,  in  which  they  lay 
several  eggs,  and  so  do  the  cormorants,  those  tall 
sea-birds  which  are  so  swift  of  wing.  Mr.  Taylor, 
who  has  studied  the  birds  so  much,  tells  us  that 
the  young  cormorants  have  neither  feathers  nor 
down,  but  their  skins  look  like  black  leather. 

The  Puffins  also  live  on  the  islands.  They  are 
queer-looking  birds,  and  have  been  compared  to 
parrots.  They  have  a  sharp,  hatchet-shaped 
beak,  and  funny  white  eyes.  They  lay  their  eggs 
in  burrows,  and  defend  them  with  much  spirit. 
And  so  the  birds  make  their  various  homes  on 


HOW    SEA-BIRDS    KEEP    HOUSE.  163 

these  barren  islands,  and  find  them  an  excellent 
place  for  summer  housekeeping.  They  are  too 
far  from  the  mainland  to  be  often  visited,  and  as 
the  United  States  government  controls  them,  no 


SUGAR-LOAF   ROCK,    FARALLONE   ISLANDS. 


164 


WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS,, 


HARRY  R.  TAYLOR,  now  a 
newspaper-writer,  lives  in 
the  city  of  Alameda,  Califor- 
nia. He  has  studied  birds 
extensively,  both  those  which 
live  near  the  sea  aud  those 
which  are  always  found  on 
land.  He  has  traveled 
through  lonely  valleys  and 
climbed  rough  mountains, 
seeking  for  the  nests  of  rare 
birds,  in  order  to  properly 
study  the  habits  of  their 
builders,  and  has  spent  con- 
siderable time  on  the  Faral- 
lones  with  the  sea-birds.  Mr. 
Taylor  has  written  exten- 
sively on  the  subject  of  birds, 
and  has  published  a  delight- 
ful little  book  called  The  Story 
of  the  Farallones. 


one  is  allowed  to  land  with- 
out permission.  We  may 
be  very  glad  that  they  are 
thus  kept  for  the  vast  flocks 
of  sea-birds. 

Other  creatures,  as  sea- 
lions,  live  in  the  water  near 
the  rocks,  and  sometimes 
creep  up  their  sides,  and 
I  once  saw  a  number  of 
whales  swimming  close  to 
the  island  cliffs. 

The  Farallones  are  the 
first  land  one  sees  when 
coming  in  from  a  long  voyage  over  the  broad 
Pacific,  and  though  they  are  rocky  and  barren, 
they  then  seem  like  the  finest  land  in  the  world. 
They  tell  you  that  you  are  almost  home;  and  how 
sweet  that  word  sounds  after  you  have  sailed  for 
thousands  of  miles! 

The  bright  beam  from  the  lighthouse  warns 
ships  in  the  night  to  keep  away  from  the  rocks, 
and  when  the  fog  hangs  over  the  ocean,  great 
steam-whistles  are  loudly  blown. 

So  if  you  ever  see  the  Farallones  from  some 
hilltop,  or  pass  them  while  sailing,  remember 
that  they  are  the  great  home  of  the  sea-birds. 


HOW    SEA-BIRDS    KEEP    HOUSE.  165 

And  think  that  they  are  more  than  that;  for  they 
are  also  a  guide  to  the  sailor,  showing  him  by 
night  and  by  day  just  how  to  steer  his  vessel  in 
order  to  reach  the  home-land,  the  land  which  he 
loves  the  best. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

Farallones  (far'al-lonz),  inurre  (mer),  rookeries  (ruk'er- 
iz),  cormorant  (kor'mo-rant),  puffin  (ptif  fin),  decreasing 
(de-kres'Ing). 


BIRD   ROCKS. 


THE   SONG   OF  THE   SEA-BIRD. 


T1 


I. 

JHE  wind  is  awaking, 

The  tall  trees  are  shaking, 
The  sand  on  the  seashore  is  driven  like  snow  ; 
Arouse  from  your  resting, 
'T  is  time  to  be  breasting 
The  gale  that  is  now  leaping  up  from  below. 


II. 

Up,  every  bold  feather  ; 

What  care  we  for  weather? 
The  sea-bird  is  happiest  when  storms  round  him  play ; 

To  him  the  huge  billows 

Are  like  softest  pillows, 
And  he  screams  with  delight  in  the  midst  of  the  spray 


III. 

When  the  green  waves  come  dashing, 

With  thunderous  lashing, 
Against  the  bold  cliffs  that  defend  the  scared  earth, 

He  wheels  through  the  roaring, 

Where  foam-flakes  are  pouring, 
And  flaps  his  broad  wings  in  a  transport  of  mirth. 
166 


THE    SONG    OF    THE    SEA-BIRD.  167 


IV. 

Then  off  o'er  the  ocean, 

Where  wildest  commotion 
Is  changing  its  surface  from  plains  into  hills, 

The  sea-bird  goes  proudly, 

And  calls  his  mate  loudly, 
To  follow  him  flying  wherever  he  wills. 

V. 

To  these  comes  another, 

Who  calls  for  his  brother, 
And  soon  a  long  line  of  swift  sea-birds  is  seen, 

Which  falls,  and  then  rises, 

With  many  surprises, 
Like  the  fabled  sea-serpent,  the  broad  waves  between. 

VI. 

By  darting  and  diving, 

And  artful  contriving, 
With  the  richest  of  sea-food  the  whole  flock  is  fed ; 

Then  away  to  the  nesting, 

And  back  to  the  resting  ; 
For  it 's  well  that  brave  fishers  should  homeward  be  led. 

VII. 

So  free  is  our  motion 

O'er  earth,  air,  and  ocean, 
That  we  range  where  we  will,  and  feel  never  a  fear. 

Whate'er  be  the  weather, 

It  can  harm  not  a  feather ; 
So,  my  happy  companions,  I  give  you  good  cheer. 


H 

6 


fe 

o 


SEALS   AND    SEA-LIONS. 


U!  ou!  ou!  ou!  What  a  strange  cry, 
—  something  between  the 
_^  moo  of  a  cow  and  the  bark 
of  a  hound.  The  sounds 
*-  are  short  and  quick,  each 
£J  ~r  one  occupying  less  than  a 
second  of  time,  though  they 
can  be  heard  for  a  considerable  distance  along  the 
rocky  shore. 

Besides  these  barkings  you  can  also  hear  deep, 
ugly  growls,  and  from  all 
of  these  sounds  you  are 
apt  to  reach  the  conclusion 
that  the  creature  which  is 
making  all  of  this  fuss  is 
in  a  very  unhappy  frame 
of  mind.  Probably  you 
are  mistaken  in  this 
thought;  but,  then,  it  is 
not  easy  to  tell  just  when 
a  sea-lion  is  contented  and 
happy. 


REFERENCE   TOPICS. 

Why  are  sea -lions  so 
called  ? 

Meaning  of  Point  Lobos. 

History  of  the  "Cliff 
House.  " 

Golden  Gate  Park. 

Efforts  to  protect  seals. 

Read  Dr.  Jordan's  "Mat- 
ka." 

Use  of  seal -fur. 

Cost  of  fur  garments. 

Man's  selfishness  is  de- 
structive. 


169 


170  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

Most  wild  creatures  are  apparently  happy  when 
they  have  enough  to  eat  and  a  good  place  to  sleep, 
and  are  in  no  danger  of  being  disturbed.  How 
contentedly  a  pussy-cat  will  blink  and  purr  when 
she  feels  that  all  of  her  immediate  wants  have 
been  supplied.  On  the  whole,  I  believe  that  most 
creatures  have  a  pretty  good  time  during  the 
greater  portion  of  their  lives.  I  certainly  hope 
that  this  is  true,  and  I  have  no  patience  with  any 
one  who  seeks  to  worry  or  torment  any  living 
creature.  You  should  do  to  others  as  you  would 
be  done  by,  even  if  the  "  others"  are  only  dogs  or 
birds  or  horses. 

The  sea-lion  may  be  barking  for  very  joy;  and 
as  for  his  growls,  they  are  only  his  customary  sal- 
utations to  his  neighbors  when  they  get  in  his 
way.  Sometimes  he  fights,  to  be  sure;  but  in  spite 
of  all  his  quarrels,  he  contrives  to  grow  very  big 
and  fat.  It  would  take  a  large  horse  to  weigh  as 
much  as  a  large  sea-lion. 

Look  at  the  picture,  and  you  will  get  a  good 
idea  of  these  creatures,  even  if  you  never  saw 
them  alive  on  any  of  the  "  seal-rocks "  that  are 
found  here  and  there  along  the  Pacific  coast. 
The  rocks  just  west  of  San  Francisco,  near  the 
famous  Cliff  House,  abound  with  sea-lions,  and 
they  lie  so  near  the  shore  that  the  movements  of 


SEALS    AND    SEA-LIONS.  171 

the  creatures  are  easily  seen,  while  their  cries  are 
heard  continually. 

In  the  picture  you  notice  one  fat  fellow  half-way 
out  of  the  water.  His  eye  is  bright  and  his  mouth 
is  open.  He  is  the  one  that  is  saying  Ou!  ou!  ou! 
The  others  hear  him,  but  they  are  not  disturbed, 
though  some  of  them  will  probably  answer  him 
back  with  interest. 

See  the  huge  creature  that  has  just  worked  his 
way  out  of  the  water.  He  is  so  big  and  fat  that  he 
looks  like  an  enormous  sack  of  meal,  wrinkles  and 
all.  Higher  up  the  rocks  are  many  others,  some 
lazily  sleeping,  while  others  are  weaving  about  in 
an  uneasy  manner.  Soon  they  will  begin  to  slip 
down  the  rocks  and  plunge  into  the  sea. 

The  principal  food  of  the  sea-lion  is  fish.  He 
is  a  very  expert  fisher,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
he  sometimes  kills  more  fish  than  he  cares  to  eat. 
Many  of  the  sea-lions  along  the  coast  have  been 
shot  during  the  last  few  years,  because  they  are 
believed  to  impair  the  fishing  for  the  men  who  go 
out  in  boats. 

There  are  several  different  animals  that  are  com- 
monly known  as  seals.  The  great  sea-lion  is  one 
of  these;  the  fur-seal  of  the  north,  sometimes 
known  as  the  sea-bear,  is  another;  while  the  true 
hair-seal,  that  swims  along  our  coast,  is  a  third. 


172  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

The  hair-seal  seldom  touches  land,  though  it 
may  often  be  seen  near  to  the  shore,  swimming 
freely,  and  occasionally  throwing  its  round  head 
out  of  water  and  looking  around  with  its  big, 
kindly  eyes.  Most  of  these  seals  are  rather  small, 
—  perhaps  three  feet  long.  Their  skins  are  covered 
with  short,  coarse  hair,  and  are  of  no  use  as  fur, 
though  they  are  often  tanned  with  the  hair  on 
and  used  for  covering  trunks  and  making  knap- 
sacks. These  seals  have  no  external  ears. 

The  sea-bears,  or  true  fur-seals,  differ  much 
from  sea-lions  and  hair-seals.  Beneath  an  outer 
coat  of  coarse  hair  they  have  an  under  coat  of  the 
softest  and  finest  fur  that  you  can  imagine.  When 
the  skins  are  prepared  for  market,  all  of  the  coarse 
hairs  are  pulled  out,  and  the  soft  fur  is  dyed  a 
rich  dark  brown. 

Iii  the  summer-time  the  sea-bears  of  the  north 
come  in  from  the  ocean  and  gather  on  the  shores 
of  a  few  small  islands  off  the  coast  of  Alaska. 

How  they  can  find  their  way  through  hundreds 
of  miles  of  waves  and  fogs  to  their  old  home  is 
something  that  we  do  not  understand.  They 
surely  must  have  powers  that  man  does  not  pos- 
sess. 

Here  they  gather  into  families;  each  household 
consisting  of  a  big,  surly  male,  who  comes  first, 


SEALS    AND    SEA-LIONS.  173 

and  as  many  of  the  small,  gentle  females  as  he  can 
induce  to  live  with  him,  as  they  come  in  from  the 
sea,  together  with  all  he  can  steal  from  his  neigh- 
boring lords. 

Sometimes  he  will  get  thirty,  and  again  only 
one  or  two;  while  many  males,  especially  the 
younger  ones,  are  obliged  to  keep  bachelor's  hall. 
There  is  no  end  of  growling  and  scolding  and 
fighting,  and  blood  often  flows  freely. 

For  fear  of  thieves,  the  head  of  a  family  dares 
not  leave  his  home,  even  to  get  a  mouthful  of  food, 
and  so  he  fasts  all  summer,  and  lives  on  his  own 
fat.  Sometimes  a  thief  comes  up  slyly  and  catches 
up  a  female  seal  in  his  mouth  and  tries  to  carry 
her  off  to  his  home.  This  act  enrages  her  master, 
and  in  the  fight  that  follows  between  the  two  big 
seals  the  poor  thing  is  almost  torn  in  pieces. 

The  young  seals  are  born  in  these  households, 
and  are  cared  for  by  their  mothers  until  they 
learn  how  to  swim  and  can  catch  food  for  them- 
selves. Then  all  the  seals  begin  to  slip  off  to  sea, 
and  gradually  the  summer  home  is  broken  up. 
The  males  leave  last,  and  then  the  islands  remain 
lone  and  bare  during  the  long  winter. 

While  the  seals  are  on  the  islands,  some  of  the 
males  that  have  no  families  to  care  for  are  selected 
by  the  men  in  charge  of  the  station  and  are  driven 


174  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

inland,  where  they  are  killed  and  skinned.  The 
natives  preserve  most  of  the  flesh  for  food,  while 
the  skins  are  shipped  to  London.  There  they  are 
tanned,  plucked,  and  dyed,  after  which  they  are 
sent  to  different  cities  and  made  into  beautiful 
capes,  caps,  and  other  garments. 

Seals  are  also  killed  from  boats  and  ships  at  sea, 
sometimes  many  miles  from  the  islands;  but  this 
is  unlawful  and  cruel,  for  most  of  those  that  are 
thus  caught  are  mother  seals  that  are  gathering 
food  to  provide  for  their  young.  If  the  mothers 
are  killed,  the  pups,  as  they  are  called,  will  starve 
to  death  on  the  islands,  and  so  the  herds  of  seals 
that  furnish  so  much  beautiful  fur  will  become 
smaller  and  smaller  as  the  years  go  by. 

The  United  States  and  Great  Britain  are  trying 
to  stop  this  wasteful  catching  of  seals,  but  they 
find  it  difficult  to  prevent  it  altogether.  Let  us 
hope  that  they  may  be  more  successful  in  the 
future,  and  that  the  seals  on  the  islands  may  be 
allowed  to  increase. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

salutations  (sal-u-ta'shttnz),  knapsack  (nap'sak),  im- 
mediate (im-me'di-ate),  weaving  (wev'ing),  enormous 
(e-n6r'mtis),  bachelor  (bach'e-16r),  enrages  (en-raj'ez), 
wasteful  (wasfful). 


A  WATER-TELESCOPE. 


HAT  is  a  water-telescope?" 

I   suppose   this  question 
will  be  the  first  one  to  be 
asked    by  every    boy 

_. or  girl  who  begins  to 

read  this  chapter.  It 
is  a  proper  question, 
too,  for  it  is  always  well  to  find  out  at  the  begin- 
ning what  we  are  to  read  about. 

Well,  then,  I  will  reply  that  it  is  not  a  telescope 
at  all,  if  we  use  that  word  in  its  strict  meaning. 
A  real  telescope  is  an  in- 
strument which  helps  to 
see  distant  objects  by  mak- 
ing them  seem  nearer.  The 
largest  telescopes  are  used 
by  astronomers,  who  wish 
to  study  the  moon  or  the 
stars. 

Many  common  telescopes 
are  called  spy-glasses,  and 
are  used  in  looking  at  dis- 

175 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

Structure  of  telescopes. 

Great  telescopes  of  the 
world. 

The  increase  of  knowl- 
edge by  means  of  the 
telescope. 

The  sea  as  a  great  aqua- 
rium. 

The  abundance  of  sea- 
life. 

Pearl-oy  stersand  pearls . 

The  beauties  of  the  sea. 


176  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

tant  objects  on  the  earth,  like  the  trees  on  a  moun- 
tain side.  Still  smaller  ones  are-known  as  opera- 
glasses.  These  are  not  very  powerful,  but  are 
convenient  in  a  large  hall,  when  one  wishes  to  see 
the  features  of  the  speaker  or  singer  more  dis- 
tinctly. But  all  true  telescopes  are  used  in  air, 
and  never  in  the  water. 

A  water-telescope  is  an  instrument  which  will 
assist  one  to  see  objects  that  are  underneath  the 
surface  of  water,  particularly  those  that  are  at  the 
bottom  of  a  lake  or  bay. 

If  you  go  out  in  a  boat,  you  know  how  hard  it 
is  to  see  the  fishes  that  are  swimming  about  in 
the  water  beneath  you.  Almost  all  the  time  there 
is  a  breeze,  which  makes  ripples  on  the  surface  of 
the  lake,  and  you  know  you  cannot  see  clearly 
through  ripples. 

Even  if  there  is  no  wind,  the  boat  itself  makes 
little  waves,  and  though  the  water  is  only  ten  feet 
deep,  it  might  just  as  well  be  a  hundred,  so  far  as 
seeing  the  bottom  is  concerned.  A  water-tele- 
scope destroys  the  ripples,  and  lets  you  look 
through  water  as  if  it  were  clear  glass. 

It  is  nothing  but  a  box  with  a  water-tight  glass 
bottom.  If  you  set  this  box  on  the  water,  and 
press  it  down  a  little,  you  will  find  that  when  you 
look  into  the  top,  you  can  see  through  the  glass, 


A    WATER-TELESCOPE.  177 

right  down  into  the  clear  water  beneath,  just  as  if 
there  were  no  rigples  or  waves  at  all. 

Sometimes  a  water-telescope  is  made  by  taking 
the  bottom  out  of  a  wooden  pail  and  putting  a 
circle  of  glass  in  its  place.  But  it  is  generally 
easier  to  fit  a  pane  of  glass  into  a  strong  box,  and 
then  make  all  the  cracks  tight  by  the  use  of  putty 
and  paint. 

The  best  water-telescope  that  I  ever  looked 
through  was  set  in  the  bottom  of  a  boat.  In  fact, 
there  were  four  of  them,  set  end  to  end,  so  that 
they  ran  almost  from  one  end  of  the  boat  to  the 
other.  The  boat  had  been  built  on  purpose  for 
them,  and  was  wide  and  flat.  In  the  center  was 
an  open  space,  or  well,  which  had  no  bottom  at 
all,  though  a  strong  curb  ran  around  it,  so  that 
the  water  could  not  come  into  the  boat,  even  when 
it  was  well  loaded. 

In  this  well  were  set  the  telescopes,  which  were 
deep,  narrow  boxes,  just  fitting  the  curb.  Their 
bottoms  were  of  clear  plate  glass,  which  was  kept 
very  clean  by  frequent  washings  with  a  soft 
sponge.  There  was  a  kind  of  canopy  over  the 
boat  to  keep  off  the  bright  light  from  above,  for 
the  things  we  wanted  to  see  were  all  beneath  us. 
There  were  seats  along  the  sides  of  the  boat  for 
the  passengers,  and  one  cross-seat  near  the  end 

W.S.K.  VOL.  8—12 


178  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

for  the  man  who  rowed  us  about.  We  each  gave 
him  twenty-five  cents  and  took  pur  places  in  the 
boat.  Then  we  all  looked  into  the  boxes,  and 
found,  to  our  delight,  that  we  could  see  the  bottom 
as  clearly  as  if  we  had  been  fishes  ourselves. 

The  place  was  a  quiet  spot  in  Monterey  Bay, 
where  the  bottom  was  partly  rocky  and  partly 
sandy,  and  the  cool  ocean  water  was  as  clear  as 
glass.  Looking  over  the  side  of  the  boat,  we 
could  see  little  but  ripples,  but  when  we  bent  over 
the  water-telescopes,  it  seemed  as  if  we  were  right 
at  home  with  the  creatures  of  the  ocean. 

The  seaweeds  first  attracted  our  attention.  They 
were  growing  gracefully  upon  the  rocks,  some  of 
them  being  bright  green,  like  leaves  of  lettuce, 
while  others  were  of  an  olive  color,  tall  and 
branched,  and  looking  almost  like  trees. 

Some  of  them  are,  indeed,  called  sea-oaks,  and 
they  grow  in  water  that  is  twenty  feet  deep,  reach- 
ing from  the  bottom  almost  to  the  surface.  Then 
there  were  fields  of  seagrass  as  green  as  that  of 
the  freshest  lawn  on  the  land. 

This  grass  was  a  yard  high  or  more,  and  we 
thought  what  a  swath  we  could  cut  if  we  could 
only  go  down  into  the  sea  with  a  scythe.  On  this 
grass  live  many  little  animals,  just  as  you  see 
flies,  and  bugs,  and  spiders  on  the  grass  of  a  hay- 
field. 


A   WATER-TELESCOPE.  179 

But  soon  we  passed  on  a  little  and  saw  still 
more  beautiful  sights.  The  gray  rocks  beneath 
us  were  almost  covered  with  purple  sea-urchins, 
their  straight  spines  standing  out  in  every  direc- 
tion. Most  of  them  were  so  large  that  you  could 
not  put  one  in  the  crown  of  your  hat  until  you 
had  taken  off  his  spines,  and  they  looked  so  happy 
and  comfortable  that  you  would  not  want  to  do 
that.  With  the  spines  on,  many  of  them  were  as 
large  as  tea-kettles,  and  in  some  places  they  were 
packed  on  the  rocks  as  thick  as  they  could  lie. 

Again,  there  would  be  groups  of  little  ones  no 
bigger  than  your  fist,  but,  big  or  little,  they  were 
all  very  interesting  objects.  And  the  best  thing 
about  it  was  that  they  were  all  at  home,  living 
just  as  they  liked  to  live,  in  the  clear,  cool,  and 
deep  water  of  the  bay,  and  not  shut  up  in  a  glass 
aquarium,  like  a  wild  bird  in  a  little  cage. 

Besides  the  sea-urchins,  there  were  many  other 
living  creatures,  such  as  we  sometimes  see  from 
the  shore,  only  larger  and  more  perfect.  There 
were  sea-anemones  blossomed  out  like  great 
flowers;  huge  abalones  resting  on  the  rocks,  their 
great  shells  raised  slightly  to  let  the  water  circu- 
late freely;  starfishes  of  various  colors,  yellow, 
red,  and  purple;  and  then  true  fishes,  swimming 
about  so  gracefully,  and  seeming  to  take  no  notice 


180  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

of  the  boat  that  was  sailing  right  over  their  heads, 
or,  more  properly,  over  their  backs. 

One  of  these  fishes  had  rings  of  black  running 
around  his  light-colored  body,  making  him  look 
like  a  prisoner  in  San  Quentin.  He  is  very  prop- 
erly called  the  "  convict-fish."  He  grows  to  be 
about  eight  or  ten  inches  long,  has  a  sharp  nose 
like  a  pig,  and  always  seems  to  be  near  the  bottom, 
searching  for  food  among  the  rocks.  They  say 
he  is  seldom  caught  with  a  hook. 

Sometimes  quite  a  large  fish  would  swim  right 
under  our  boat,  and  again  we  would  see  a  whole 
school  of  sea-minnows,  or  shiners,  darting  away  in 
various  directions,  and  then  coming  together 
again,  like  bees  in  a  flying  swarm. 


Figure  86. 


A    WATER-TELESCOPE.  181 

We  kept  near  the  shore,  as  the  life  is  more 
abundant  there,  and  besides,  when  the  water  is 
too  deep,  it  is  hard  to  see  what  is  going  on  be- 
neath you.  But  when  we  saw  the  fishing-boats 
come  in  with  their  loads  of  beautiful  silver-sided 
salmon,  we  wished  that  we  might  have  had  a 
telescope  that  would  have  shown  us  the  wonders 
of  the  deeper  sea. 

When  we  stand  on  the  beach  and  look  out  over 
the  waves,  we  can  imagine  some  of  the  wonderful 
things  that  are  going  on  beneath  them,  but  we 
cannot  really  see  the  great  fishes  darting  here  and 
there  in  pursuit  of  their  prey,  nor  observe  the 
broad  pearl-oysters  resting  on  the  bottom,  nor 
watch  the  hundreds  of  beautiful  creatures  that 
have  their  home  far  away  from  man's  sight. 

And  yet  we  know  that  they  are  there,  for 
sometimes  the  boats  let  down  hooks  and  dredges 
and  bring  us  up  a  few  specimens.  And  so  we 


Figure  87. 


182  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

picture  to  our  minds  the  wonderful  ocean  home. 
We  think  of  all  that  we  might  see  there,  if  our  eyes 
could  only  get  the  chance,  and  we  try  to  imagine 
what  we  never  can  hope  to  behold. 

But  with  the  wonderful  water-telescope  we  can 
really  see  a  great  many  of  the  creatures  that  live 
near  the  shore,  and  they  seem  so  much  more 
beautiful  than  we  had  supposed,  that  we  are  ready 
to  believe  that  if  we  could  only  live  there,  we 
should  find  the  ocean  as  rich  and  interesting  and 
as  full  of  life  as  the  land  or  the  air. 

I  hope  that  you  may  all  have  a  chance  some 
time  to  go  out  in  what  is  called  the  "glass- 
bottomed  boat,"  and  if  you  do,  I  am  sure  you 
will  be  surprised  and  pleased  to  observe  what 
wonderful  plants  and  animals  live  beneath  the 
blue  waves. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

telescope  (tel'e-skop),  astronomer  (as-tr6n'o-mer),  con- 
venient (kon-ven'yent),  concerned  (k6n-sernd'),  canopy 
(kan'o-py),  scythe  (sith),  shiners  (shm'ers),  aquarium 
(a-qua'ri-tim). 


THE   HARVEST   OF   THE   SEA. 


fiROM  the  sea  comes  much  merchan- 
dise.   Thousands  of  men  earn  their 
Jiving  by  helping  to  gather  it  in. 
Thousands  more  prepare  it  for  mar- 
ket, transport  it  to  convenient  sta- 
tions, and  then  expose  it  for  sale  in 
the  stores  and  deliver  it  to  buyers. 
If  the  harvest  of  the  sea  should  fail  for  a  single 


year,  there  would  be  great 
distress  in  many  homes, 
and  the  business  world 
would  be  greatly  dis- 
turbed. 

The  harvest  of  the  sea 
may  be  divided  into  three 
groups;  namely,  mineral, 
vegetable,  and  animal  pro- 
ducts; and  the  last  of  these 
three  is  of  far  more  value 
than  both  of  the  others. 
We  will  take  them  up  in 
their  proper  order. 

183 


REFERENCE  TOPICS. 

What  are  crystals? 

Formation  of  salt  crys- 
tals. 

Uses  of  chlorine. 

Beware  of  swindlers. 

Iodine. 

Codfish  industries. 

What  fish  can  you  watch, 
to  find  out  its  habits  ? 

The  sea-otter,  and  its 
fur. 

Whalebone,  and  its  uses. 

Diving  for  pearls. 

The  sea  as  a  great  store- 
house. 


184  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

The  mineral  product  consists  chiefly  of  salt, 
great  quantities  of  which  are  obtained  from  sea- 
water  by  evaporation.  California  has  a  fine  cli- 
mate for  this  work  during  a  part  of  the  year,  for 
there  is  no  rain  in  summer,  and  the  warm  and 
dry  air  rapidly  takes  up  the  moisture  from  the 
salt-ponds. 

Most  of  these  ponds  are  located  in  Alameda 
County,  on  the  low  lands  adjoining  San  Francisco 
Bay.  The  ponds  are  shallow  basins  that  can  be 
easily  filled  from  the  bay  with  the  salt  water  that 
is  to  be  evaporated  by  the  heat  of  the  sun. 

When  most  of  the  water  has  evaporated  and  the 
brine  has  become  very  strong,  the  salt  settles  in 
crystals  and  is  raked  out  and  thrown  up  into 
great  white  piles  shaped  like  tents,  which  can 
be  seen  across  the  marshes  for  a  long  distance. 
During  the  year  1898,  Alameda  County  produced 
87,800  tons  of  salt,  valued  at  $155,812. 

Besides  common  salt,  certain  other  chemical 
salts  are  obtained  from  sea-water,  but  the  amount 
is  not  very  great,  since  most  of  them  are  now 
found  in  mines  and  springs.  From  common  salt, 
however,  very  valuable  products  are  manufactured, 
such  as  soda  and  chloride  of  lime.  These  are  used 
in  the  making  of  glass,  soap,  paper,  and  white 
cloth.  So  everybody  uses  sea-products  every  day. 


THE    HARVEST    OF    THE    SEA.  185 

There  is  said  to  be  a  trace  of  gold  in  all  sea- 
water,  and  many  efforts  have  been  made  to  ex- 
tract it  profitably.  A  few  years  ago  a  speculator 
put  up  works  on  the  coast  of  Maine  for  taking 
gold  out  of  sea-water.  He  would  sink  his  cans 
beneath  a  wharf,  and  pass  electricity  through 
them  all  night. 

Ill  the  morning,  when  they  were  pulled  up, 
they  were  found  to  contain  considerable  gold,  and 
many  people  paid  him  large  sums  of  money  for  a 
share  in  the  business. 

He  took  their  money  and  soon  disappeared. 
When  he  did  not  come  back,  they  began  to  look 
around,  and  at  length  it  was  found  that  he  had 
employed  a  diver  to  go  down  into  the  water,  each 
night,  and  put  the  gold  into  the  cans.  It  is  not  prob- 
able that  the  sea  will  be  used  as  a  gold  mine 
again,  till  people  have  forgotten  this  wicked  cheat. 

The  vegetable  products  of  the  sea  consist  chiefly 
of  various  kinds  of  mosses  or  seaweeds  which  are 
used  for  food  or  are  employed  in  the  arts.  Some 
nations,  as  the  Japanese,  eat  seaweeds  very  freely, 
while  Americans  eat  them  but  little,  though  they 
make  some  use  of  them  as  medicines. 

From  sea-mosses  we  can  extract  much  gum  or 
mucilage,  which  is  used  by  clothmakers,  and  the 
refuse  can  be  made  into  a  stiff  pasteboard  for 


186  WESTERN    SERIES 'OP    READERS. 

book-covers.  From  the  ashes  of  seaweeds  several 
valuable  salts  can  be  obtained,  especially  the  salts 
of  iodine. 

The  salt  grass  of  the  seashore  is  carefully  saved 
in  some  countries  of  Europe.  It  is  made  into  a 
coarse  hay,  which  is  used  instead  of  straw  as  a 
packing  material,  especially  in  crates  and  boxes 
containing  glass  or  earthenware.  Perhaps  you 
have  seen  it  when  such  cases  have  been  opened. 

We  now  come  to  the  animal  products,  and  here 
we  find  a  great  variety.  Fish,  doubtless,  heads 
the  list,  as  by  far  the  most  valuable;  and  then 
come  the  other  kinds  of  food,  as  oysters,  clams, 
lobsters,  and  crabs,  while  oil,  whalebone,  sponge, 
and  pearl  follow  on,  the  yield  of  each  one  being 
worth  vast  sums  of  money  every  year. 

There  are  more  kinds  of  fish  taken  from  the 
sea  than  you  or  I  could  count  in  a  long  time,  but 
a  few  of  these  are  more  valuable  than  all  the  rest 
put  together.  Sharks  are  the  largest  fishes,  but 
few  people  care  to  eat  their  flesh,  though  the 
Chinese  esteem  their  fins  a  delicacy. 

But  almost  everybody  eats  salmon  and  cod  and 
mackerel  and  herring.  They  are  eaten  fresh  by 
those  who  live  near  the  shore,  while  for  other 
people  they  are  preserved  in  various  ways  and 
sent  all  over  the  world. 


THE    HARVEST    OF    THE    SEA.  187 

Salmon  is  canned,  or  salted,  or  smoked,  and  it 
is  good  eating  in  any  of  these  ways.  Codfish  is 
preserved  in  brine,  and  then,  when  it  is  well 
salted,  it  is  spread  out  in  the  sunshine  and  thor- 
oughly dried.  The  crisp  fish  are  then  either 
packed  in  large  bales,  or  pieces  of  the  best  parts 
are  made  into  white  "  bricks, "  which  go  to  the 
kitchen  and  are  "  picked  up  "  by  the  cook,  fresh- 
ened, and  then  made  into  delicious  fishballs. 

Mackerel  are  preserved  in  brine,  and  are  often 
sold  in  small  kegs,  called  kits.  Many  people 
consider  mackerel  the  most  delicious  fish  of  the 
sea.  Large  herrings  are  always  salted.  Some 
are  sold  from  the  brine,  while  others  are  dried 
and  smoked,  and  then  packed  in  wooden  boxes. 

Sardines  are  fishes  resembling  small  herrings. 
They  are  cleaned  and  cooked,  and  put  up  in  flat 
tin  boxes  with  olive  oil.  Some  of  the  larger  ones 
are  preserved  with  mustard  or  tomato  sauce. 

If  you  live  near  the  coast,  you  can  get  many 
other  kinds,  like  smelt  and  rockfish  and  flounders 
and  eels;  and  if  your  home  is  near  a  river  or  lake, 
you  may  get  trout  or  perch  or  sturgeon,  but  these 
are  seldom  preserved  by  salting  or  canning,  and 
must  be  eaten  while  they  are  fresh. 

Fishing  may  be  hard  work,  but  it  is  often 
reckoned  as  sport.  Here  is  what  one  man  tells 


THE    HARVEST   OF   THE    SEA.  189 

about  his  fishing  near  San  Diego.  A  number  of 
men  had  gone  out  in  a  boat  and  had  no  success 
for  a  time,  but  at  last  the  fish  began  to  bite. 

"  Now  the  fun  commenced  in  earnest;  first  one, 
then  two,  four,  five,  are  hooked  at  a  time,  and 
rare  sport  it  was  to  haul  them  in.  For  about  five 
minutes  we  had  all  we  could  handle,  and  then  for 
ten  or  fifteen  minutes  we  would  not  see  a  sign  of 
one.  Now  we  are  into  them  again,  hauling  away 
for  dear  life. 

"  Sometimes,  when  hauling  in  one  or  two,  they 
would  become  entangled  with  other  lines,  and 
before  we  could  get  them  in  we  would  have  one, 
two,  or  three  on  the  remaining  lines,  and  then 
there  was  a  sad  jumble  of  lines  and  struggling, 
fish. 

"  Occasionally,  in  attempting  to  land  the  fish  in 
the  box,  we  missed  it,  and  they  fell  down  into  the 
bottom  of  the  boat,  or  our  footing  would  be  lost 
and  we  were  bunched  in  a  slippery  mass,  fish  and 
all.  The  sloop  was  pitching  heavily,  as  half  a 
gale  of  wind  was  blowing.  Wet  from  the  waist 
down,  we  had  what  you  might  call  a  huge  time. 
Having  all  the  fish  we  wanted,  by  two  P.M.,  al- 
though the  biting  was  as  furious  as  ever,  we  got 
under  way  to  save  the  wind  home." 

But  fish  do  not  include  all  of  the  food-products 


190  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

of  the  sea.  Think  of  all  the  creatures  that  man 
has  captured  for  his  use.  Off  the  coast  of  Central 
America  the  natives  catch  great  turtles  that  come 
up  on  the  sandy  beach  to  lay  their  eggs.  In  the 
frozen  Arctic  the  Esquimaux  live  almost  wholly 
on  seals,  while  in  the  markets  of  our  coast  cities 
are  found  numerous  kinds  of  those  creatures  that 
people  call  shell-fish. 

In  some  countries  sea-cucumbers  are  esteemed 
as  a  great  delicacy,  while  among  certain  islanders 
of  the  Pacific  a  swimming  seaworm  is  so  highly 
prized  that  when  it  arrives  off  their  coasts  they 
drop  all  other  employments,  including  fighting, 
and,  friends  and  enemies  together,  pull  off  in  their 
canoes  to  collect  great  quantities  of  the  green 
"Polulu." 

Comparatively  little  clothing  is  obtained  from 
the  sea,  but  that  little  is  of  the  most  expensive 
kind.  It  does  not  take  a  very  large  sealskin  cape 
to  be  worth  one  hundred  dollars,  while  a  single  sea- 
otter's  pelt  will  fetch  three  fourths  of  that  sum. 
Leather  is  made  from  the  hides  of  hair-seals  and 
walruses,  while  shoestrings  of  the  strongest  kind 
are  cut  from  the  tanned  skin  of  the  porpoise. 

Oil  was  formerly  obtained  almost  wholly  from 
the  blubber  of  whales,  but  in  these  days  of  petro- 
leum not  so  many  ships  go  out  to  hunt  these  great 


THE    HARVEST    OF    THE    SEA.  191 

creatures.  They  have  little  rest,  however,  for 
there  is  still  a  great  demand  for  whalebone,  which, 
by  the  way,  is  not  bone  at  all,  but  a  kind  of  tough 
fringe  which  grows  around  the  whale's  mouth  to 
assist  him  in  catching  his  food. 

A  large  whale's  head  may  contain  as  much  as 
2,500  pounds  of  whalebone,  and  the  price  is  some- 
times as  high  as  $3.50  a  pound;  so  you  see  the 
capture  of  a  full-grown  whale  is  quite  an  impor- 
tant event. 

While  the  whalers  in  the  Arctic  are  taking  off 
the  fat  blubber,  the  natives  are  rushing  in  with 
sharp  knives  to  cut  off  as  much  of  the  lean  meat 
as  possible  before  the  carcass  sinks.  This  lean 
meat  furnishes  them  a  great  supply  of  food,  and 
we  surely  do  not  grudge  them  their  prize. 

From  whales  to  sponges  is  a  long  step,  but  both 
are  a  part  of  the  ''harvest  of  the  sea."  Good 
sponges  grow  in  rather  warm  water,  like  that  of 
the  West  Indies  and  parts  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.  They  are  also  found  in  the  Red  Sea,  but 
none  of  any  value  grow  in  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

When  the  sponge  is  torn  from  the  rock  on 
which  it  is  growing,  and  brought  to  the  surface, 
it  is  of  a  dark  color,  looking  almost  like  a  piece  of 
liver.  After  being  out  of  the  water  for  a  short 
time,  the  sponges  die.  They  are  then  thrown  into 


192  WESTERN    SERIES    OF    READERS. 

a  tank  of  water,  where  they  remain  a  few  days, 
till  most  of  the  flesh  has  decayed. 

Then  they  are  taken  out,  and  so  thoroughly 
cleansed  and  washed  that  nothing  but  the  skele- 
ton remains.  This  yellow,  horny  skeleton  is 
what  we  call  a  sponge,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
is  what  is  left  of  a  sponge  after  the  parts  that 
once  had  life  have  perished. 

Pearls  are  perhaps  the  most  precious  products 
of  the  sea,  and  we  will  close  our  account  of  the 
harvest  which  man  reaps  from  its  waters  by  a  few 
words  concerning  pearls.  A  good  pearl  is  round, 
like  a  pea,  and  it  shows  mild  rainbow  colors  upon 
its  surface  as  it  is  turned  over  and  over. 

Pearls  are  found  inside  the  shells  of  the  pearl- 
oyster.  They  are  made  of  the  same  substance  as 
the  shells  themselves,  and  get  their  color  and 
luster  from  the  same  sources. 

Pearl-oysters  have  large,  flat  shells.  They  grow 
in  water  about  fifty  feet  deep.  The  best  ones 
come  from  off  the  coast  of  Ceylon,  though  they 
are  found  in  many  other  parts  of  the  ocean. 

Native  divers  go  down  to  the  bottom,  gather 
shells  into  a  basket,  and  are  drawn  up  again,  all 
in  the  course  of  a  minute.  Like  the  sponges,  the 
oysters  are  taken  from  the  water  and  left  to  de- 
cay, and  then  the  pearls  are  carefully  gathered. 


THE    HARVEST    OF    THE    SEA.  193 

If  no  good  pearls  are  found,  at  least  the  shells 
are  left,  and  many  of  these  are  sold  for  the  manu- 
facture of  mother-of-pearl  objects,  such  as  fine 
buttons  and  knife-handles. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  ask  you  to  carefully  ob- 
serve the  objects  about  you  for  a  single  week.  I 
am  sure  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  many 
of  them  came  wholly  or  in  part  from  the  great 
ocean  that  covers  three  fourths  of  the  surface  of 
the  world  in  which  you  live. 


BLACKBOARD    WORDS. 

polulu  (po-lu'lu),  petroleum  (pe-tro'le-tim),  thoroughly 
(thur'o-ly),  skeleton  (skel'i-ttin),  chloride  (klo'ridor  klo'rid), 
iodine  (fo-dm),  convenient  (k6n-ven'yent),  evaporated 
(e-vap'o-rat-ed),  whalebone  (hwal'bon),  precious  (presh'tis). 


HOW   TO   COLLECT    AND    PRESERVE, 
SPECIMENS. 

is  a  good  thing  for  young  people  to 
have  small  cabinets,  either  of  their  own 
or  in  connection  with  their 
school-mates.        Specimens 
are  to  be  collected  for  pur- 
s  poses  of  study ,  and  in  mem- 
ory  of  interesting  places  to 
which  visits  have  been  made. 

It  is  always  well  to  write  good  labels  and  to 
keep  a  record-book,  giving  numbers,  localities, 
dates,  and  other  items  of  interest.  The  speci- 
mens themselves  can  be  kept  in  either  boxes  or 
bottles,  and  these  can  be  stored  in  any  convenient 
room  or  cupboard. 

Large  shells  and  other  dry  objects  may  be 
marked  with  a  name  or  number,  and  laid  on 
shelves  or  in  proper  boxes.  Very  small  shells, 
seeds,  etc.,  may  be  kept  in  little  bottles,  which 
can  be  bought  of  the  druggist  for  a  small  sum. 

Objects  which  cannot  be  dried  must  be  kept  in 
closed  jars  of  preserving  fluid.  Alcohol  is  good, 

194 


HOW  TO   COLLECT  AND   PRESERVE    SPECIMENS.       195 

but  dilute  formalin  is  much  cheaper.  About 
ten  parts  of  water  to  one  of  formalin  is  a  good 
mixture,  though  for  some  things  it  may  be  still 
weaker.  Instead  of  jars,  well-corked  bottles  with 
wide  mouths  may  be  used  to  contain  the  fluid  for 
the  smaller  objects. 

Most  mollusks  may  be  killed  by  putting  them 
into  fresh  water  for  a  time.  They  can  then  be 
plunged  into  boiling  water.  In  a  little  while  the 
flesh  will  be  loosened,  and  can  be  taken  out  with 
a  pin.  The  shells  should  then  be  cleaned  with  a 
brush,  rinsed,  and  thoroughly  dried.  Bivalves, 
after  cleaning,  should  be  closed  and  tied  with  a 
string  until  they  are  dry,  to  prevent  them  from 
gaping. 

Directions  for  drying  starfishes,  etc.,  have  al- 
ready been  given.  A  bath  of  formalin  solution, 
before  drying,  is  an  advantage  for  such  objects. 
Remember  that  both  alcohol  and  formalin  are 
poisons,  and  use  them  accordingly.  Get  as  many 
books  to  help  you  as  you  can  afford,  or  consult 
them  in  the  libraries. 

Finally,  wherever  you  live,  try  to  get  acquainted 
with  all  the  natural  objects  around  you.  They  can 
teach  you  many  things;  for  they  were  all  made  and 
are  all  governed  by  Infinite  Wisdom. 


LIST   OP   FIGURES. 


FIGURE.  NAME.  PAGE. 

1.  Acmsea  spectrum,  Nutt 19 

2.  Fissurella  volcano,  R\v 20 

3.  Glyphis  aspera,  Esch 20 

'  4.  Lucapina  crenulata,  £by 21 

5.  Fissurelidsea  bimaculata,  Ihill 21 

6.  Acmsea  spectrum,  Nutt 21 

7.  Acmsea  patina,  Esch 22 

8.  Acmsea  pelta,  Esch 22 

9.  Acmsea  persona,  Esch 22 

10.  Acmsea  mitra,  Esch 22 

11.  Lottia  gigantea,  Gray 23 

12.  Ostrea  Virginiana,  Lister 30 

13.  Mya  arenaria,  Linn 38 

14.  Mya  arenaria,  Linn 39 

15.  Ariolimax  Columbianus,  Old 45 

16.  Helix  Dupetitliouarsii,  Desh 46 

17.  Helix  fidelis,  Gray 47 

18.  Helix  Tryoni,  Newc 47 

19.  Glyptostoma  Newberryanum,  W.  (\.  I> 47 

20.  Haliotisfulgens,  Phil 51 

21.  Haliotis  Cracherodii,  Leacli 55 

22.  Haliotis  rufescens,  Swains 60 

23.  Pecten  latiauratus,  Conr 64 

24.  Pecten  hastatus,  Sby 66 

25.  Pecten  sequisulcatus,  Cpr 67 

20.  Hinnites  giganteus,  Gray 69 

27.  Mytilus  Calif ornianus,  Conr 73 

28.  Modiola  recta,  Conr 74 

197 


198  LIST    OF    FIGURES. 

FIGURE.  NAME.  PAGE. 

29.  Septifer  bifurcatus,  Rve 75 

30.  Adulafalcata,  Gld 75 

31.  Surcula  Carpenteriana,  Gabb 76 

32.  Goniobasis  nigrina,  Lea 79 

33.  Goniobasis  plicifera,  Lea 79 

34.  Physa  heterostropha,  Say 81 

35.  Helisoma  trivolvis,  Say , 81 

36.  Limnophysa  palustris,  Mull 82 

37.  Limnxa  stagnalis,  Linn 82 

38.  Anodonta  Calif orniensis,  Lea ; 83 

39.  Anodonta  angulata,  Lea 85 

40.  Olivella  biplicata,  Sby 87 

41.  Psammobia  rubro-radiata,  Nutt 88 

42.  Macoma  secta,  Conr 89 

43.  Tapes  staminea,  Conr 90 

44.  Saxidomus  Nuttalli,  Conr , 90 

45.  Donax  Californic-us,  Conr 91 

46.  Glycimeris  generosa,  Gld 92 

47.  Lunatia  Lewisii,  Gld 93 

48.  Littorina  planaxis,  Nutt 98 

49.  Littorina  scutulata,  Gld 98 

50.  Chlorostomafunebrale,  A.  Ad 98 

51.  Chlorostoma  brunneum,  Phil. ...  99 

52.  Calliostoma  costatuiii.  Mart. . 99 

53.  Calliostoma,  anmilatum,  Mart 99 

54.  Leptonyx  sanguineus,  Linn .  100 

55.  Pomaulax  undosus,  Wood 101 

56.  Trochiscus  Norrisii,  Sby  ...?.; 101 

57.  Cryptochiton  Stelleri,  Midd 104 

58.  Tonicella  lineata,  Wood 104 

59.  Stenoradsia  Magdalenensix,  lids 104 

60.  Mopalia  ciliata,  Sby 105 

61.  Mopalia  lignosa,  Gld 105 

62.  Purpura  saxicola,  Val 105 


LIST    OF    FIGURES.  199 

FIGURE.  NAME.  PAGE. 

63.  Monoceros  engonatum,  Conr 106 

64.  Purpura  lima,  Mart 106 

65.  Purpuru  crispata,  Chem 106 

66.  Eanella  Calif ornica,  Hds 107 

67.  Chorus  Belcheri,  Hds 107 

68.  Nassa  perpinguis,  Hds 108 

69.  Amphissa  versicolor,  Ball 108 

70.  Ocinebra  lurida,  Midd , 108 

71.  Cardium  corbis,  Mart Ill 

72.  Siliqua  patula,  Dixon 109 

73.  Zirphcea  crispata,  Linn 109 

74.  Pholadidea  penita,  Conr. 109 

75.  Parapholas  Calif  ornica,  Conr 110 

76.  Asterias,  Starfish 120 

77.  Actinia,  Sea-anemone 126 

78.  Medusa,  Jellyfish 132 

79.  Velella,  Salleeman .  133 

80.  Ommatostrephes,  Common  squid. 135 

81.  Ommatostrephes,  Purple  squid 136 

82.  Nereis,  Seaworm 139 

83.  Balanus,  Acorn  barnacle 141 

84.  Aglaophenia  struthionides,  Feather-moss 153 

85.  Lunda  cirrhata,  Sea-parrot,  or  Puffin 162 

86.  Sebastichthys,  Rockfish 180 

87.  Pollachius,  Pollock-fish, . . . , 181 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Abalone 50 

Barnacle 141 

Brittle-star 128 

Chiton 104 

Clam 37 

Coral 154 

Crab 130 

Cuttle-fish 135 

Fish 186 

Fresh- water  clam 84 

Fresh-water  snail 82 

Giant  clam 92 

Grampus 117 

Hermit  crab 143 

Hydroid 152 

Jelly-fish 132 

Land-slug 45 

Land-snail 43 

Limpet 16 

Littorine 98 

Moon-shell 93 

Mussel . . ,  71 

Octopus 135 

Olive-shell  ,  .  87 


PAGE 

Oyster , 27 

Pearl 192 

Pecten 62 

Piddock 109 

Porpoise 117 

Purple   106 

Salleeman 133 

Salt 184 

Sand-clam 88 

Sea-anemone 126 

Sea-birds ; 113,  158 

Sea-bottle  156 

Sea-lion 169 

Sea-slug  156 

Seaweed , 138 

Seaworm 139 

Sea-urchin 123 

Seal 169 

Sponge 155 

Squid 135 

Starfish 120 

Top-shell 100 

Turban-shell , .  98 

Whale  . ,  .190 


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Toyon— A  book  of  Holiday  Selections,  by  Allie  M.  Felker 

Paper,  35c.    Board,  60c.    Cloth 100 

Supplement  to  State  History,  by  Harr  Wagner 25 

Matka,  a  Tale  of  the  Mist  Islands,  by  David  Starr  Jordan 

(Schooled) 75 

Educational  Questions,  by  W.  C.  Doub 1  00 

Lessons  in  Language  Work,  by  Belle  Frazee Net  50 

WESTERN    SERIES   OF   PAPER   BOOKS 

No.   1.     Songs  of  the  Soul,  by  Joaquin  Miller 25 

No.  2.     Dr.  Jones' Picnic,  by  Dr.  S.  E.  Chapman 25 

No.  3.    Modern  Argonaut,  by  Leela  B.  Davis 25 

No.  4.    How  to  Celebrate  Holiday  Occasions— Compiled 25 

No.  5.    Patriotic  Quotations 25 

WESTERN    LITERATURE  SERIES 
No.  1.    Readings  from  California  Poets,  by  Edmund  Russell 

Paper,  25c.    Board 40 

WESTERN   SERIES   OF   BOOKLETS 

No.  1.    California  and  the  Californians,  by  David  Starr  Jordan  25 

No.  2.     Love  and  Law,  by  Thos.  P.  Bailey 25 

No.  3.    The  Man  Who  Might  Have  Been,  by  Robert  Whitaker  25 

No.  4.    Chants  for  the  Boer,  by  Joaquin  Miller 25 

No.  5.     Toil,  Poems  by  D.  F.  I^eary 25 

WESTERN    EDUCATIONAL   HELPS 

No.  1.    Civil  Government  Simplified,  by  J.  J.  Duvall 25 

No.  2.    An  Aid  in  the  Study  and  Teaching  of  Lady  of  the 

Lake,  Evangeline,  and  Merchant  of  Venice,  by  J. 

W.  Graham 25 

No.  3.    Grammar  by  the  Inductive  Method,  by  w.  C.  Doub..  25 


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MAR  25  19^-0 


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5  1948 

MAY  1 8  1949 
APR  27  1950 
5AR  9  1951 


17  1952t 
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